Fashion week in New York is over, but the runway on the stage at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, is what we want to talk about now. For the medium steel bands which competed in the prestigious annual National Panorama competition in the twin-island republic, creativity held reign. While the uniforms were more low-key than their larger counterparts, most of the steel bands had artistic logos on their shirts.
COLOR COMMENTARYArima Angel Harps? aqua blue and white matched the colors painted on their bass instruments, making the entire band look tropical. Sforzata?s creative blue and yellow shirt complemented the blue, yellow and white motif of the entire band. On the whole, the medium steel orchestras had a wider selection of colors appearing on the stage, and only Parry?s Pan School, with their red, black and white striped shirts, took on the color scheme which would more commonly be seen a later on stage, in the large steel orchestra category.
Dominating the large steel bands was either red, black or white - one color or a combination of the three. Phase II carried the red, white and black theme all the way down to the graffiti on background pans. As usual, the shirts had the colorful air of something you would want after the pan season is over.
Exodus, as usual in white and silver uniforms with stylish fedora hats and matching their instruments, showed a consistency of uniform we now come to expect from the band.
Desperadoes deviated from the other bands? color selections by choosing to appear in navy blue which contrasted with the silver background pans.
Renegades and Invaders both chose red and white, although Renegades chose satin with a white fedora, while Invaders went the more casual route with a sweat pants uniform in red, black and white.
Redemption Sound Setters offset their white uniforms with variations in the colors of the ties, while All Stars ? the sailor band, continued in the sailor motif for another year, evoking carnivals of years gone by.
Skiffle Bunch, in their black and white tee shirts looked less formal than the other bands, but no less festive on stage.
All in all, this year in fashion was in keeping with the standard of the music, and the steel bands played on.
