Ethel Kerr, pioneering West Indian fashion influencer, turns 102

LONDON: Ethel Kerr, who celebrated her 102nd birthday on March 12, has been honoured in a short film produced by Cagney Roberts for BBC Reel. The feature marks her pioneering work in West Indian fashion and beauty contests in the United Kingdom and has been nominated for an award at the Windrush Festival.

The narrative follows Kerr’s career from her birthplace in Braeton in St Catherine, Jamaica to Haringey in north London. There, she struggled to realise her dream of becoming a dressmaker but was helped by an employer who bought her her first sewing machine.

Kerr met hairdresser Desmie Campbell, who would become her business partner, through social contacts in the local Jamaican community. They combined their expertise to present small-time fashion and hairdressing shows for their friends, family and customers. These promotions became so popular that Kerr was soon making – and designing – clothes for a larger market.

In the 1980s, Desmie-Etty Promotions revolutionised London’s West End fashion industry through their sequence of beauty titles which catered for all generations. As well as the standard Miss Elegance for young ladies in their late teens and 20s, they had Miss Junior Model for the early teens, Miss Mini Model for primary school age, and a contest for glamorous grandmothers. Desmie Campbell passed away early last year at 89 years old.

IMPORTANCE

Georgia Robinson, now owner of Come Shop and Swap, was one of the many young girls who participated in these shows and went on to help in their promotion. She explains the importance of having a platform on which young black girls may present themselves and their talents. Robinson insists that, as black girls were often neglected with limited opportunities to shine, this approach primarily increased their own confidence and sense of self-worth.Kerr’s grand-daughter, Michelle Patterson has also come to see the value of engaging the young ladies in this way. Like Robinson, she regarded these shows initially as giving girls something to do and keeping their minds.

She now appreciates that, inspired by Mrs Kerr’s example, the ladies’ characters are developed to take on the challenges of life. Kerr withdrew from promoting in the early 1990s because of her husband’s illness. Although there was no immediate successor, many of the former models she brought on have made a significant impact on the development and social attitudes towards fashion, design and beauty contests in the UK.

In fact, to have been associated with Miss Elegance/Desmie-Etty Promotions is regarded as a sign of honour.