“Imma big woman not ah little girl I not sixteen again, so doh expect me to be the same cuz I is a big girl now.”
Finally, a Carnival season where one can not only look back and smile at the memories of the music and the call of the road, but one can build a playlist just from the plethora of looks this soca artist has blessed us with this season. She is indeed a big girl now. Really, it’s reminiscent of that feeling you got when Rihanna moved from Pon de Replay to Good Girl Gone Bad – no one expected it, but it was electric! There is no other way to describe the new direction soca star Patrice Roberts has taken this year as she railroaded the competition during the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival season.
“The Big Girl Now” singer has successfully bloomed into the style queen she was born to be, as fete after fete after fete saw her assert her new, mature superstar persona on and off-stage. Her glam team which includes make-up artist Dion Samuel, and designer and stylist Neil Young, have been working with Roberts for the past three years. This year, the team helped her to transition her look from what she believed people thought to be timid, to the more commanding presence fans saw this season. Taking sartorial cues from a few international artists including multiple Grammy award winner Rihanna, Roberts was on a mission to slay. “I just wanted fans to see a different side of me. For many years I’ve been kinda reserved. And many times I heard people saying that ‘Patrice is so timid, she’s the princess of soca’ and I just wanted them to see that I’m all grown up,” she told Style & Vibe recently.
“I wanted to be edgy this year, on so many levels and not just with the outfits but the performance, the attitude. You know, I just wanted them to see that I’m no longer the Princess of Soca and I’m a staple name in the industry. My goal was to dominate and I did that.”
And dominate she did. The hair, the wardrobe, her presence truly allowed for an escape from the mundane and repetitive fashion that has come to be expected from her colleagues. As E. E. Cummings once said, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” Roberts has certainly shown us who she is and this talented artiste could be vying for the international stage next – she is making the right moves for the big league.
“Sweet fuh days,” these are some of Robert’s best looks of Carnival 2018:
Keishel Williams
Keishel A. Williams is a writer, editor and content producer with an ardent affinity for fashion, feminism & fine living - and of course, lots of tea!
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