My love for the Fine Arts has been nurtured all my life stemming from artistic family roots to advanced training in Art & Design at college.

Visual expression has been my loudest voice no matter the medium. Every aspect of growing up involved visual stimulation & following a path that felt unexplainably natural.

Everything from colouring inside & outside the lines to wearing mustard denim pant suits with striped lining & being dedicated to specific colourways for ‘home attire’ has undoubtedly influenced the now. In my studies, I was constantly encouraged by my mentor to seek the formal elements in my surroundings. I saw fashion then as a medium to channel creative energy, an additional avenue for expression. Excessive fashion illustrations & my personal style got the attention of those around me and I was encouraged by peers & well-wishers to do a collection of clothing for a local Vincentian fashion show in 2008. I launched my first clothing line [Silky Ruff] introducing myself to the applied art of Fashion Design. Surely this was me running before learning to walk. My initial idea of the industry was rudely distorted or rather put into focus thereafter. The glamour on the surface hid the solid foundation of the industry, one built on serious hard work, risk & determination amongst a host of other bona fide characteristics.   I learnt through trial & error each season. In 2011, I rebranded and Fashion Is PAYNE was established. The first t-shirt was born. A black cotton jersey cropped box tee with the hand-painted words of the brand at the front hem, a font that soon pushed our logo into existence. The need to paint everything was the new black. Clothing, shoes, jewelry, hats, faces, walls… it all gets payneted. Spending hours payneting yards of fabric to churn out original all-over prints to make oversized coats for art installations, customizing store bought shoes to go with new looks meant payneting those too. Soon enough t-shirts became the staple product of a new founded culture. Island vibes mixed with streetwear mixed with the Fine Arts – this is Fashion Is PAYNE. But indeed it is love that has me here on & off, give or take 9 years later. Haute Couture & details, Fine Arts & the formal elements, concept & execution, photography & great imagery, music & riddim in motion are some of my greatest loves and all serve their roll in influencing my creative energy. Here’s too many more years of payneting.   - xx