Pulse supermodel Kimanee Wilson wears a Meiling design.

The region's revered masters of style are coming to Caribbean Fashionweek (CFW) in record numbers this year.

Come June 11, Jamaica will welcome fashion luminaries from around the world. However, despite the importance of fashion's international stars, a major target for Pulse this year is to have the region's masters all together on the CFW runway at the same event.

Already confirmed is the queen of minimalist chic, Meiling; Trinidad's top fashion export, Francis Hendy; Claudia Pegus, and Heather Jones, plus Barbados' couturier to the world's jet set, Simon Foster. They will join Calvin Southwell from Antigua and their Jamaican counterparts, in what will no doubt be the most significant fashion feast in the history of the Caribbean region.

worldwide stylists

Apart from these heavyweights, other confirmed fashion stars in this heavily oversubscribed CFW year include Peter Elias, Zadd and Eastman, Robert Young, urban maestro Biggy, Mutamba, Moncrieffe, Rojo and Yardmanstyle. This list, of course, does not include the stylists from around the world, such as Lubica and Kendra Francis from Canada, Antoinette Olivia and Nkwo from the UK, as well as Born As A Ragamuffin and Rachel Lym from the United States.

However, the really big guns from Europe and the East who will show at CFW this year are Versace protege Catalin Bothezatu from Romania, Gavin Douglas from the UK, Deola Sagoe from Africa and Sushma Patel from India. These designers show regularly at the collections in New York, Paris, Milan and London.

This uber strong contingent will undoubtedly create a veritable fashion feast, certain to trigger sold-out houses at the National Indoor Sports Centre, come June 11-16. Stylists will be joined by a galaxy of celebrities and international personalities, making CFW 2008 a strong contender for Jamaica's event of the year, all categories considered.

Since its inception in 2001, CFW has evolved and grown in leaps and bounds, while remaining true to its Caribbean's creative elements. This synergy of Caribbean culture and international pizzazz has earned the show major respect from important fashion press around the world, including Vogue and Fashion TV Paris - the world's top distributor of fashion programming which disseminated CFW 2007 content to over 300 million households around the world.

World's number one black model, Jaunel McKenzie, in Catalin Botezatu.- Contributed photos