Fashioner designer Fe Noel who has dressed Beyoncé and Michelle Obama, said that opening her brand’s first store Noel’s Little Caribbean in Brooklyn’s very own Little Caribbean on June 5 has made her feel “successful for the very first time,” even though she has had her own line in Target for sometime.
Noel, who is of Grenadian descent, grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and described Brooklyn as a “melting pot, edgy, and full of life.”
Her introduction to fashion began during her childhood when her mother, who worked at a clothing manufacturing company would bring her to the factory where suits were made, or come home with buttons and clothing.
She started designing clothing only after she had opened her first boutique, and her clothes are heavily inspired by the Caribbean. She said it 100 percent influences everything she does.
Her clothes feature big sleeves, and have an airy quality to them that she said captures the effortless style of the Caribbean.
“There’s a style of living [in the Caribbean], and I wanted to emulate that with the clothing I made,” she said.
She is also inspired by her travels, and said her favorite place to go was Grenada. “There’s no place like it,” she said.
Noel hopes to inspire with her story. She described her entry into fashion as “very pure and organic and [her] being young and thinking everything is possible.”
The designer wants others to feel that anything is possible, and that spirit is captured in a phrase she uses, “live in color.”
“Try everything that you’re supposed to try, do everything that you’re supposed to try, do everything that you’re supposed to do… because you don’t want to die with your magic still inside of you,” she said.
Noel has a foundation called the Fe Noel Foundation which pairs young people with an interest in fashion with a mentor. But she said that everyone can be an example, “by living in color, you living out loud, gives people permission to do the same.”
The entrepreneur sees Flatbush as a beautiful starting point, and hopes as more youth follow their dreams, that they too return to their community and show that beautiful things can be there as well.
