“Oh, I love your dress!”
“Whoa, that’s really nice!!”
These sentiments flow from stunned admirers while gushing over Pink Lemonade apparel; Owner of the fashion line, Rotchelle Parris, effortlessly attracts such compliments when sporting one of her ‘throw-on fabulous’ looks, even from “people who don’t even know that I’m a designer”. Since starting the business in 2010, her customers have revelled in the compelling appeal of the custom-made designs, which Rotchelle describes as “easy” and “chic”.
“It’s not fussy. It’s not over the top, but it’s still very chic. I would say that it is simple in terms of having a very clean design and it just makes for easy wear. You don’t have to think about it, you put it on and it does what it’s supposed to do.
“[For example] you have a kaftan and it’s nice and easy. It’s just a pretty straight forward design but then because of the print that you use, it makes something that is considered very simple stand out,” she told Glamizine.
The Pink Lemonade by Rotchelle Parris brand is known for vibrant, tropical designs, both on the runway and off. But, as with any entrepreneurial venture, its glamorous reputation and critical acclaim was preceded by tremendous work and resilience. Rotchelle recalled the sleepless weeks she experienced ahead of her first fashion show at Barbados Fashion Week (now International Fashion Festival) in 2010. The planning and preparation for the show was done with then business partner Daisy.
“We did that in a short window – three weeks, to a month… We did jumpers, dresses and those days, we actually did tie-dye. So we hand-dyed the pieces but I moved away from that because that’s a great undertaking. If you’re dying fabric, you have to wait for it to dry before you can sew it. At that point in time, we wanted to be original and not have any fabric from somewhere else,” she noted.
Rotchelle has always been creative – expressing acute interest in dance from age seven, learning to crochet, and studying pottery as an elective at Barry University in Miami, Florida. The Psychology graduate said she is open to learning new things, and unsurprisingly, her desire to sew and design evolved from an irresistible impulse.
“I just decided one day that I wanted to learn how to sew. I got a sewing machine and I kind of just figured it out,’ she said, adding that she invested in books and learned from Youtube.
Designing has opened a world of unique opportunities for Rotchelle, who juggles her fashion career with a full-time profession as a branding specialist. For instance, she has done fashion shows in Trinidad and Tobago, Washington DC and Atlanta. She has been the resort-wear sponsor for contestants and winners of Miss Universe Barbados, and her designs were featured in ads like the Bajan 1966 rum. A highlight for Rotchelle was having one of her designs featured in OK Magazine — a UK based publication — in 2012, in which Kerry Katona (an original member of the girl group The Atomic Kitten) was styled in a drape-detail, purple dress. Rotchelle had also launched a “From Barbados with Love” campaign in 2018, which featured iconic landmarks as backdrops to her tropical collection.
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