Fashion Designers: Anya Ayoung Chee and Christina Economou

Clothes designers from Trinidad and Greece get together with Kim Chakanetsa, to talk about the killer combination of creativity and business sense you need to make it in the competitive world of fashion.

Anya Ayoung Chee is from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Always interested in fashion, but too scared to study it at college, she started making her own outfits when competing to represent her country at Miss Universe. Anya later entered the US reality TV show Project Runway, and came out the surprise winner, having only learnt how to sew weeks before! She's had her own labels, but is currently leading a collective of 30 local designers with the aim of putting the Caribbean region firmly on the global fashion map.

Christina Economou is a rising star of the European fashion scene. She studied in Paris and won the 2011 International Award at London Graduate Fashion Week, then returned to her home city of Athens to fulfil her dream of launching her own luxury label. Christina has a love of bright colours and bold prints, and sources much of her production and fabric locally, for example in the historic Greek silk town of Soufli. She says fashion school did not prepare her for how to combine her design skills with running a business, so she's had to learn the hard way.

Image: Anya Ayoung Chee (l) and Christina Economou (r) Credit: Joey Rosado (l) and Yiorgos Kaplanidis (r)