What is really going on with all these international and regional Carnivals boy, I mean really it is now becoming a mockery of Trinidad Carnival's "designs" and "designers". Now this Orlando Carnival 2008 band "Island Fantasy" have recycled costumes from "Wee International"!'
Island Fantasy
Wee International Band Launch Pics,
courtesy moi, Saucy:
courtesy moi, Saucy:
Check out their myspace page for the rest of the costumes. To add insult to injury ALL the costumes are only $80.00US ALL INCLUSIVE, granted Orlando Carnival is not in the same league as "the greatest show on earth", however, these costumes were selling at $409.00US and $442.00US when they were being offered by Wee International; that's a 500%+ mark up, or should I say mark down.
Oh, and really couldn't they have gotten a photograph of the section "Passion" (formerly "Fatal Attraction") from Wee's website instead of using the one I took at their band launch?
Oh, and really couldn't they have gotten a photograph of the section "Passion" (formerly "Fatal Attraction") from Wee's website instead of using the one I took at their band launch?
Last year we saw Evolution, Ronnie & Caro, D Krewe and Wee International debut, making a play for masqueraders dollars in a market already teeming with bikini and beads bands. Now, for 2009 we can expect Elements along with the rumoured bands of Kaotic and Spice to join the fray and I fear it is this over saturation of the Carnival market with the SAME OLE SAME OLE that will lead to this "trend" of reusing costumes after Trinidad Carnival as the bands that BUSS try to recoup their losses!
Good luck to them all for 2009!!
Edited to add:
Check out this article (thanks for finding it dajewel) which explains the link between Wee International and the people behind this band... VERY interesting read. Is it really "making" costumes for Orlando Carnival or selling off costumes from Trinidad? Why not come with a different costume altogether then? I am still annoyed.
Good luck to them all for 2009!!
Edited to add:
Check out this article (thanks for finding it dajewel) which explains the link between Wee International and the people behind this band... VERY interesting read. Is it really "making" costumes for Orlando Carnival or selling off costumes from Trinidad? Why not come with a different costume altogether then? I am still annoyed.
26 comments:
Talk about NO, NONE, ZERO, NADA, NOUGHT CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING IN THOSE HEADS OF THESE SO-CALLED MAS PEEPS IN OTHER ISLANDS AND NORTH AMERICA!!!!
I think OUR MAS PEEPS SHOULD HAVE THEIR WORK COPYRIGHTED! LOL
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
I am weak with laughter here with them using your pic Saucy!
That is fricking HILARIOUS! Complete with time/date stamp and everything! ROFLMAO!!
I think OUR MAS PEEPS SHOULD HAVE THEIR WORK COPYRIGHTED!
I doh think that's the problem carnivaldiva...it seems to me that the less popular bands/sections in Trinidad have SOLD whatever extra costumes to these overseas bands in an effort to make as much money as possible.
Saucy, I guess the argument could be made, that why hold on to the costume if it just gonna stay there and dry rot anyways, but I just find it real ridiculous. Especially when you see the low price that the other Carnivals are charging for the mas that you paid hundreds of dollars for!
wow!!! so blatant!!! some not even bothering to change the headpieces!!! and the price that the band here in orlando is charging is just another blatant insult to injury!!! nonetheless, the wee's presentation is quite nice...
but another thing i would like to bring up (excuse me for playing devil's advocate), but i can see how some bandleaders/masqueraders may be an advocate of this practice because it gives potential masqueraders a chance to play in a costume that they didn't get a chance to play in for trinidad....
I agree with Afro Chic, the band/section leaders are most likely selling off costumes that have not sold for Trinidad carnival;. That is the price of pre ordering wholesale costumes from China as opposed to making costumes on an individual basis when masqueraders register. Even if you are left with excess MATERIAL doing it the latter way you can always reuse the material the following year. What are you going to do with excess COSTUMES? I wonder how these costumes are sold in the other Carnivals because obviously they are already pre-sized, I guess that is why we have the generic S,M,L and Xl costumes instead of it going by size. It really amuses me, and someone brought up this point before, how ONE theme can just fit ANY band!
For sure jewel, last year people were happy to play in Island People's "Nubians" (for less) that was reused for Labor Day by Burrokeets. :)
oh, and i was able to locate an article about the band that is bringing out this presentation. perhaps this can be used as part of the discussion:
http://thepinehillsnews.com/wp/2008/04/28/fantasy/
Wee International isn't a 100% locally based band from my recollection.
But why not call the band Wee International Deja Vu. lol lol
Wow...is reuse they reusing THREE costumes there?! lolololo @ using your pic from the launch...ohhh the hilarity of it all!
socaholic I remember Wee stated that they were indeed international band with sectors all over, but I checked their website and it states nothing about reusing the costumes in any other Carnivals which I would think would be the marketing strategy of "international" just like Poison UK.
great article Jewel! I knew one of the costumes looked like one from D Krewe, the yellow one, but they did a few changes. Well I don't know how I feel about them saying the costumes are being "made" by Wee International when the costumes were actually first "made" for Trinidad Carnival... lots of leeway there!
I agree with you Saucy.
I wonder if you can just collect a band with presentation of you Trini look a like costume.
Hmmmmm
yeah, i think the article sheds some information to the discussion...the credibility of the bandleaders for this band is not really demolished because they explictly said WHO made the costumes, BUT it is not explictly mentioned that the costumes were made/recycled from trinidad carnival...
oh, where are my manners?? your welcome, saucy!!
my only question is, after I save my money, and i purchase this costume for $400 to $500 us. and see the exact same costume selling for a quarter of the price i paid, why are we paying 5 times the amount?
maybe an explanation for this can we found in the importation costs, taxes and other sundry costs such as bar licenses for every truck, employment costs for all those bar tenders and people serving you food as those bands are no where near the monstrosity of 4000-6000 people chipping with them. Perhaps all these should be taken into consideration. But one can also counter argue that bulk buying is less expensive always results in cheaper production and purchasing costs, so a band of 4000-6000 people should have lower overhead costs shouldn't they? hmm or perhaps, the reason why Trinidad carnival prices never decrease are because trinis will pay at any price to enjoy the wining, gyrating and niceness on carnival day. I myself, have been guilty of indulging in this sinless pleasure.
these bands (wee international et al) have not experienced the level of success thatg IP, TRIBE, Trini Revellers and GENESIS have encountered, thus desperate to make a profit, they resell their costumes. how can blame them,the statemnt always stands.
"One man's rags is another man's riches"
Gene-who? :|
oh but using saucy's picture is just POOR conduct!!!lol shame on them...they aint even put a little courtesy saucy nothin!!
Well this is not a rear incident, where international band re-use our costumes at a much lower cost,I think some of the band leaders/managers panic when they have over ordered costumes for T&T carnival and try to cut their losses by selling off the costumes at a loss, This makes no sense to me at all and i feel it has to deal with being realistic and savvy when it comes to making a debut in T&T, some new bands are so eager to "do the china thing" they rush to pre order and end up being stuck with the excess, and as saucy rightfully suggested, why not produce locally until you are sure of you clientèle then go the route if you wish of ordering costumes from china, do you think that TRIBE, IP, and the other large bands jumped into Chinese mas production? NO! THEY ALL started LOCALLY with the exception of certain materials.
So these "new bands" should think before they further RAPE what is left of our carnival!
yea, everyone may think that its hilarious to have a US "mas band" use left over costumes from a well known Trini group. But remember, both the US group & WEE entered into an agreement, in which the costumes were bought and pictures were authorized for use as advertisement from WEE Int. And of course WEE is getting credit for having produced the costumes, they aren't being mocked, the costumes & pics weren't stolen. So lets try not to knock Orlando. They're trying to do well, so a little help from big bro or sis in Trini shouldn't be frowned upon :)
Aphrodite the photograph for the costume "Passion" is NOT from Wee International.. I took that pic, it has my camera's time and date stamp and if you go back in my archives you will see I posted THAT pic when Wee International launched.Also check out my photobucket album for the rest of the pics I took that night.It has the date, the time and the camera used to take the photograph.
http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l45/trinicarnivaldiary/Wee%20International/
So yeah, THAT pic was NOT authorized by ME for use by any mas band and Wee cannot give you authority to use it either as it is not THEIR pic. Not that I am going to make a fuss or demand you take it down, just pointing out some inaccuracies in your statement concerning THAT photograph.
I find it odd that Wee did not have a photograph for one of their own sections and had to resort to "borrowing" one of mine.
My apologies, I understand what you're saying in regards to them using your picture, and having it passed on...
Aphrodite, the big bros and sis in T&T are not mocking anyone really but lending a creative eye and some constructive critique that you should use not brush off in arrogance, all that has been said basically is, if you have to use the same costumes maybe some sort of alterations can be made to the design so that it does not look like a washed up version of left over costumes.
O.k. honey!
as a reporter ur research is poor gyul u kno for sure other bands doh use china pre production? hmmmm
u shud source ur info betta ok b4 u try to put down ppl, aight so for some strange reason dey use ur pic there must b a logical explanation for dat cause all d other pics were frm their photoshoot u all over wee,do ur homework properly nah
Newsflash “ras” I am not a reporter, I just write about what I see and what I see is that these costumes were used before by Wee in 2008 Trinidad Carnival. Trinidad Carnival Diary has never promoted itself as “news” or about “news reporting”.
I have written about ALL the bands that used costumes form China, Harts, Island People and TRIBE included. Maybe you should do YOUR research by reading all the posts and topics I have ever written about.
It seems as if you are affiliated with Wee and cannot take the criticisms, sorry. I was not trying to “put them down” just stating MY observations on the trend of recycling costumes. In recent weeks I have written about both Pulse 8 and Ronnie & Caro doing the SAME EXACT THING. So, nothing personal against Wee, if you can’t take the heat… get out of the kitchen!
So, lets hear the logical explanation they had for using my photograph?
BLAZE THEY TAIL SAUCY!
You should send a bill for the pics!
and what happen to that "blogger" apparently she is strung way too tight. they want to give SWIMCOL competition and be bowl faced with it!
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