He began as a helper, just to catch a glimpse of the costumes in the queen shows, over four decades ago.
Today he is one of the “big names” in Carnival costume building and has secured “Best Costume Award” for several of his creations for contestants in the princess, teen and queen shows and is also the recipient of a Golden Drum award.
Clarence Douglas grew up in the heart of the capital, and was a member of the Siffleur Montagne Chorale (SMC) in the early 70’s. After coming from practice with the group, he would go across to the St. Gerald’s Hall where the People’s Action Theatre (PAT) held their practice.
“I watched what they were doing. I was interested,” he says.
He recalls quietly appraising the man in charge, Dr. Alwin Bully, as someone he “could work with” and approached him during carnival and told him of his interest.
Douglas said at that time he worked with the late Urban Harrigan to perform odd jobs during carnival and also at Carnival City to stack chairs.
“Because I want to see the queen show, but I don’t really want to see the queen show, I want to see the costumes,” he said. “There’s something about the costumes I am interested in. I love watching costumes. Even a day like today, I don’t stay for the whole show as soon as the costume round is gone I am ready to go about my business.”
Young Douglas kept looking at costumes for “some time” until he was brought to the place where the costumes were built.
“When I went there I met a few guys there. I went as a helper and it took me a couple years before I build my costume,” he recounts.
He said the very first costume he built had something to do with the Mountain Chicken – Dominica’s national dish at the time, just before Hurricane David.
The design was submitted by Dr. Bully and according to Douglas, it was like an “exam” given by the group he was working with.
“It took me a little while to get things going. But my real costume I almost designed it – was in 1983, right after Hurricane David I don’t remember the name but we had a nickname calling it-Morocoy. Because it was really looking like one and it took me a month and a half to build it on my own.”
That year that costume received the best costume award – the first of many, according to Douglas.
“My very first time as a professional and that person who won that costume was called Talithia Charles from Laplaine, and nothing was happier than I was,” he stated.
Talipha did not win the crown that year but she was among the “runners-up”.
“And we keep going, going, going…” Douglas says but he points out that his successes were not without their challenges.
He says the costume builders moved around quite a lot.
They moved from the current location of 4-D on Charles Avenue, to an area on the Bayfront called “The Five Hole” to Dominica Timbers, now the Goodwill Primary school, to a location behind the Dominica Grammar School and most recently, to the Windsor Park Sports Stadium where according to Douglas, they are being “pushed further and further back every year.”
He is recommending the establishment of a permanent location for costume building as well as an increase of the current $5,000 allocation per costume to between $6,500 and $7,000.
He has worked with many of the other big names in the industry such as Darnley Guye, Michel Raffoul and John Riviere and is one of the founders of the group, Creative Dynamics founded by Dr. Alwin Bully in 2007.
“That year,” he muses, was “a happy year for us.” The costumes they built for contestants in both the Queen and Princess shows were awarded Best Costume.
Douglas also remembers winning the best costume three times when he worked with Dr. Lennox Honychurch.
He retired from his full time job as the maintenance man at the Old Mill Cultural Center for more than 20 years more than eight years ago.
Now, Clarence Douglas is about set to pass the baton to fresh energy and other creative minds. His reason?-his health, and he has some words of advice for those interested in the industry.
“Be willing to learn and when it’s good, take it but it’s not an easy road. But if you are someone who work to get heavy duty pay, I would not advise you to,” Douglas pointed out. “Don’t get into it for the sake of money, get into it for the love of it.”
Congrats Clarence!
Congrats Well Done love to see the costumes
The people of St. Kitts and Nevis have kicked out corruption and voted the opposition to lead them. DNO, I know your headline here is about Clarence Douglas but the manner the people of SKN have voted out their much accused corrupt leader has me overwhelmed. They have just exposed the ignorance, stupidity, and carelessness of our Dominican voters, who just voted in the second most corrupt government and leader in the history of the Caribbean politics. Douglas out and Harris in!
Statement by Team UNITY Leader Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris
Today is a great day!! Team UNITY has won the general election in St. Kitts and Nevis. In an unprecedented turn of events, the supervisor of elections has abruptly suspended reporting the results of the returns of the constituency representative.
At this time, the returning officers have returned six winning Team UNITY candidates. In constituency 1 Ian Patches Liburd. In constituency 4 Lindsay Grant. In constituency 5 Shawn Richards. In constituency 7 Dr. Timothy Harris. In constituency 9 Mark Brantley. In constituency 10 Vance Amory. There are still two seats pending. The results for Eugene Hamilton in constituency 8 and Alexis Jeffers constituency 11 are still pending. At this time, we ask the people of St. Kitts and Nevis to be patient and to remain calm.
Our Democracy will prevail and the fresh start we have all been yearning will come to fruition.
Your resolve, strength and our UNIT
Congratulations Mr Douglas. I have one observation, you are to abrasive open your self for questions from the common man he wants to learn too.