From left: Dexter Pottinger, celebrity designer and stylist; Muriel Lantin CEO ML Butterfly and executive producer of Golden Glam; Saint CEO, Deiwight Peters; and Paris-based Guyanese designer Alex Rotin. - Contributed

Having conquered the Jamaican landscape over the last decade, model agency Saint International and its CEO, Deiwight Peters, are looking out at the Caribbean for new frontiers to conquer, or at the very least, into which to expand.

On the verge of a decade of existence, Saint International has, in the eyes of fashion industry experts, blazed a trail in the fashion industry and carved its own niche. The agency was the first by at least five years to have a televised model search, in the form of Faces of Summer, with CVM Television.

Over the last eight years, Saint International has been the Caribbean's leading provider of model talent to Paris, the fashion capital of the world. An unprecedented 10 models from Saint International have walked the runways and showrooms of fashion's elite in the French capital.

Parisian catwalks

Ten of its models have also appeared for leading French clients, including Yves St Laurent, Louis Vuitton, Maison Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Costume National, and Rick Owens, among others. The list of Saint models who have graced the Parisian catwalks include Sigail Currie, Shena Moulton, Nakeisha Robinson, Canise Jackson, Sosheba Griffiths, Kareen Taylor, and the sole male, Creing Wittingham, who walked for John Galliano in his first show season in that city.

Given these accomplishments, Peters thinks it is time to start looking at other opportunities that lie beyond Jamaican shores. "The next 10 years are going to be guided by a number of strategic moves," he says. "One such move is that we are looking to partner or align with forward-thinking partners across the region."

Some potential partners have already been identified, while those careful strategic decisions are already being made with regard to with whom Saint is willing to work. Leading the way is ML Butterfly, an agency in the French colony of Guadelope with which Saint has been in partnership for about two years. "We have been collaborating in ways to define and refine the fashion aesthetic, not just when it comes to models, but certainly when it comes to production," Peters revealed.

Between November 25 and 28, Peters led a Saint contingent to the French Caribbean island to participate in the Caribbean Golden Glam, produced by ML Butterfly.

Cultural exchange

The event, he said, is a novel approach to introducing a trans-regional platform for the fashion industry. "We were in charge of the Jamaican contingent and it also forms a very strong cultural exchange," he said. "We brought in Jamaican designer Dexter Pottinger and last year, we supported Neah Lis."

Saint chose ML Butterfly for several reasons, but key was the agency's leader, Muriel Lantin. "She's young, bright, ambitious and very straightforward, which is very important, nothing shady about her," Peters said. "Therefore, we were very happy to collaborate with her on this and future projects that we are already working on."

The Saint CEO said Lantin was very instrumental in introducing him to Kevin Obrien, a top stylist from Paris. Obrien has, over the past two years, become a partner for Saint for Style Week Jamaica. Through the partnership, Saint discovered model Rainer Boucard from Guadelope, who they sent to New York for development and then had him placed with Major Models in Milan.

On the premise that Saint has mastered discovering and developing model talent and staging world-class fashion events, expanding into a market with which they have had a long relationship certainly seems like the right move at the right time. Peters hinted that there were concepts being explored outside Jamaica, like live show properties, including model searches, live fashion events and television content related to lifestyle and fashion.