After a two year break local designer Amethyst Richardson is back with a new collection - Silk Metal.

He will unveil the collection on Sunday in a unique location - his back garden.

When interviewed by last week, Amethyst said the show would have an ambience like no other. He is also planning to have drummer, vocalist Onika Best, aka Blak Kla Soyl, violinist Taylor Rankin, and one model in particular being the trans-gendered Chrissy Ratteray.

On the collection front, Amethyst has fused the use of shantung and raw silks, with his Spirit Wear standard of natural linens.

?This year the patrons will see much of white linen, which of course is my trademark,? he said.

?This will be detailed with metal colours of silk along with Spirit Wear?s signature piece, which I have been creating over the past years.

?As always I continue to work with linens and cottons but this year I am looking forward to introducing the raw and shantung silks which can be worn to the workplace as well a formal affair.?

Although at the time of the interview, Amethyst did not have a fuller-figured model, he has designed a line with full-bodied women in mind.

?Long lines are great for the fuller women ?the real women? because it allows her to be free in her movement, while also creating an illusion the she is taller,? said the designer.

?I cannot make one look smaller, but I can make her look longer. The colour of this collection is predominantly white with a bit of oranges and greens cloned with the ?silk metals?.

?The collection will be jewelled by baubles jewellery, which is mostly natural seeds and wood along with other stones.?

His inspiration for many of the pieces in this collection was inspired and initiated by people here on Island.

?I have decided to keep it simple light and fluid, providing freedom for a highly playful eroticism that parades sexiness without shyness and vulgarity just so it floats over the body to suit the needs of everyone.

?With this collection everyone is able to wear the soft silhouettes, of a modern poetry with transparent pants under skirts unevenly tucked and placed, some crinkled replacing structure and creating style.

?The men are relaxed in crumpled linens and raw silks. For day or evening, and this offers a long-line silhouette with wide bottom pants and pulls it together to display rough art.

?Overall contrasting mat with shiny fabrics bring a touch of subtle femininity.?

Shantung and raw silks offer the texture and style that is needed in almost any wardrobe.

?I decided to use shantung silk along with raw silk simply because it works well with linens and cottons,? Amethyst added.

?It also allows one to be able to dress up what they already have in linens without having to spend money on something new.

?Just perk up and old piece with a new touch of shine and a pair of CFM pumps and off you go.?

Asked about his choice of models, the designer said: ?Most of the models are Spirit Wear regulars along with some fresh new faces.

?They are all very natural and they were chosen simply because they are fresh natural and have an exotic way about themselves.

?This year we were unable to find a fuller-figured model, but I would very much like to have a beautiful female strutting her stuff.?

Chrissy (Chris) Ratteray, the trans-gendered model, spoke about her history of modelling with Amethyst and her links to the fashion industry.

?I have been modelling for about six or seven years, but I don?t do as much runway work as I used to do, although I still do head shots for magazines and stuff like that,? she said.

?But whenever Amethyst calls, I always rush to walk for him - he is fabulous.

?His work flows and it is very earthy - it is different.

?Each season his clothes are different and I think with most local designers it is always a question of where they get their inspiration from. Many are inspired by international designers, but I know that Ame (Amethyst) doesn?t even like to look at magazines while he is designing.

?If he is feeling inspired to do a collection, he won?t even look at magazines. It is always different, always original, l and it makes a woman or a man - and I am speaking from a woman?s point of view - feel very natural.

But in spite of all her experience as a model, when it is time to walk, she still gets the jitters.

?Right before I walk, I get nervous and I make sure that everything is perfect, the hair, the make up and everything is in divine order, but every time I hit the runway I get the jitters,? added Ms Ratteray.

?But once I am out there my personality comes out and I could walk a mile-length runway. I just keep walking and it is usually after the first walk that I start delivering.

?I love to feel beautiful, I love being in trendy clothes, this is my industry even though I don?t work in it as much as I used to.?

This year the designer has added a new touch, rather than have recorded music - he has opted for live impromptu tunes.

?Blak Kla Soyl of Barbados, formerly of Bermuda, will beat congas along with Taylor Rankin who will be on violin,? he said.

?And together their rhythm, melody will accentuate, relate, and create a vibration on the runway for the Spirit Wear Collection.?

Drummer and vocalist Blak Kla Soyl spoke from her Barbados home about playing at the fashion show.

She said: ?Rhythm is metaphysics and playing for models is like playing for dancers, by that I mean is that you must watch them and accentuate their movements.

?So that is the same theory that I use with models, I watch the movements of their garments.

?I will play the drum to that and accentuate their turns and their stops, so what I am basically going to do is set the ambience for the entire evening.

?Walking is rhythm and normally it is easy to walk to music because you can go in front of it or behind it and what the drums do is set a different mindset in the minds of the people, because it is live.

?I drummed at the Barbados Fashion Week in early April for a designer with all male models and as a new model would come out, I?d play a different drum beat.

?It was awesome because although it was simple, what it did was to set a mood and it gave the men a real male power.

?I was able to play the drum in a masculine or a feminine way - depending on the garment.?

But she is not playing alone and has yet another opportunity to gel with another great musician.

?Taylor Rankin and I are musical sweethearts, because we have nothing in common but our love for music and when he plays the violin, I play the drums - it creates a sensual, erotic, musical passion. It has nothing to do with sex or eroticism, but on the other hand, it does.

?It is like a guitarist that I play with here named Ignatius, when I had my show here in Barbados I brought over Taylor Rankin to play with Ignatius, because the musical relationship is similar.

?When we play together our instruments agree and our spirits meet.?

In her view, the event will be a fashionable musical explosion.

?It is going to be an eclectic erosion of fashion, drum and violin and that is a wonderful mesh,? she said.

?It is not too much, but it is not a little bit either.

?Even though I am a drummer, vocalist and a solo artist, I am not one of those artists that feel that I am just doing my thing and because of that I don?t want to play with someone else.

?I love fashion, because I have always been in the fashion industry and I am now taking my drum there with me.?

The new collection will be unveiled in the back garden of his Pembroke home and patrons can ring 504-1400 for his address, directions and tickets.

Cocktails are from 5.30 p.m., unveiling at 6.15 p.m. Tickets are $20 and there is limited seating.