With this new year, we want to do some spectacular things. What is more spectacular than using an internet tool like a blog to spread the word about up-and-coming talent around the world? Even better, we’ll start with the talent right here in The Bahamas.

Conchience Clothing, backed by the team of Giorgio Knowles, DAngelo ‘Muffy’ Charlton, Amelia Amoury, Jeremy J. Johnson, Mei-Lin Wong, Ashley Bethel & Ramond Sawyer is one of the rising and prosperous clothing lines in The Bahamas. Conchience Clothing took off as a representation of the Bahamian culture and lifestyle through clothing. Some of the line’s slogans, “Bahamian is the New Black” and “Take My Talks”, push foreign concepts aside as well as remove popular logos(The Polo Horse, Tommy Hilfiger, etc…) from Bahamians’ chests and replaces them with something endemic to The Bahamas, the conch. It in turn encompasses the spirit of The Bahamas as its people through bright colors and bold designs.

How did the idea for a clothing line come about?

Giorgio-

“I originally started it in 2005, fresh out of high school. I was looking for ideas, to bring something to the Bahamas instead of being a regular doctor or lawyer and whatever like that. I was always into clothes and I was looking for a medium to get all my ideas out there about The Bahamas and our culture because we had no clothing line that represented us. So when I came up with Conchience, I mean, it was just magic…I came up with Love Yuhself, which is the female line in 2007 because ‘Love Yuhself’ is such a bold statement and Bahamian girls use it so much to express how they feel.”

How did you arrive at the name Conchience?

Giorgio-

“Its funny because I’m not sure exactly how I came up with it, but I remember a couple months before learning that Americans don’t pronounce the word conch as ‘konk’ they say ‘Konsh’. For some reason that always stuck in my head and when I came up with Conchience, for some reason it just flowed…’mmm conchience’ a Bahamian state of mind.

When you think of other Bahamian lines like, Two Hundred and Forty Two and Malaika, how does Conchience stand out?

Giorgio-

“Malaika, Levardo Stubbs, is a good friend of mine… His style is different from mine and that’s what I like about his, he targets more of the ‘rootsiness’ of it with the rasta colors and he uses a lot of browns and black in his colors where in my designs I use a lot of bright colors, ya know, The Bahamas; the sun, the beach and Junkanoo; yellows, pinks, reds.”

I’ve seen Two Hundred and Forty Two and the guy, I’ve never met him personally but from what I’ve seen, he’s a great artist. The thing about Conchience is we don’t just consider ourselves a clothing line, its beyond clothes, it’s more of a movement.”

Amelia-

“Its more of a lifestyle we’re promoting. We’re not thinking of Bahamian stuff to market and not make it gimmicky. We’re trying to express the way that we live our life through clothing.”

With relation to the last comment you made Giorgio do you consider yourselves fashion designers or entrepreneurs?

Giorgio-

“I don’t consider myself a fashion designer in any sense. I just happen to be a guy that has a keen eye for what is fresh… I taught myself to design…Amelia on the other hand, she’s born with natural talent…She’s a gifted artist.”

Amelia-

“Both designer and entrepreneur, because anything you do these days, you have to have a business mind-set about it…Basically everyone is taking advantage of their talent and making it marketable.”

Care to share any secrets of the upcoming year?

Amelia-

“A lot of color and a lot of bold statements…The next line is gonna be an evolution of what Conchience is now. It’s gonna be above the standard we’ve set previously so it’s gonna be good!”

Giorgio-

“We have some stuff coming out at the top of 2009 that’s bigger than Conchience and Love Yuhself….I dunno if I can let that out…its something pretty big.”

What are the prices of your pieces?

Giorgio-

“Our prices for t-shirts range from $25-30. We ain’ trying to hurt nobody. Hoodies we have $50 and Polos are $30- 40 dollars depending on the style.”

Do you guys have a store?

Giorgio-

“Right now we have an online store and when you purchase a shirt we deliver it to your door, just like pizza[laughs]. Ain’t gatta waste no gas or move off your couch.”

Lastly, on your website you had ” Big World, Dream Bigger”, do you plan on expanding the line internationally?

Giorgio-

“Of course, but not until I’ve realized that this is the exact product I want to market to the states because in The Bahamas you can market a product but in the states it’s a whole different ball game…different culture, different people.

Present for this interview were Giorgio Knowles (founder), Amelia Amoury (Female Designer) & Ramond Sawyer (Public Relations).”