Winnielle is the Irie Lioness!

We women need our heroes. With­out a shadow we do.

The plight of women, which is very much con­nected to the plight of our world, needs voice and it needs the drum­beat of a live wire encour­age­ment.  Win­nielle Pereira, founder of Irie Lioness Bou­tique and Win­nielle Model Man­age­ment  beats that drum bet­ter than most (men or women) I know.

I feel that espe­cially in a GLOCAL uni­verse, it is truly some­times the only con­ver­sa­tion that mat­ters, the only con­nec­tion that is guar­an­teed.  The con­tact may be fleet­ing, but the impact is far-reaching.

I have been read­ing Win­nielle as the Irie Lioness on Face­book since Octo­ber 2010, through sta­tus updates They are purely pos­i­tive vibra­tions.  I like her call and response cam­paigns so insis­tently fun­neled through social media. It is the pains, suf­fer­ings, bat­tles and vic­to­ries which I read in every word, every song choice and every expression.

There is power in con­sis­tency.  I’ve said this to her and still throw all my sub­stance behind the fol­low­ing com­men­tary: “You are a blaz­ingly beau­ti­ful woman in word and deed! … [F]rom my heart to yours. It’s a con­sis­tent energy and rem­edy you offer. There’s power in con­sis­tency. I’ve never seen you lower your­self and its a beau­ti­ful thing because you are defin­ing and redefin­ing your­self. woman to woman. Iron sharp­ens iron. I rec­og­nize and I appre­ci­ate what Jah allows even through this space.”

There is some­thing about her. A qual­ity that is unnamed, that can­not quite be cap­tured because it is unique to her and I think emanates from the soul of who she is and is becom­ing.  She strikes me as a woman with a story then, and that is say­ing a great deal, because I have this keen aware­ness of the breadth and breath of women as expe­ri­ence itself.

Win­nielle pours pas­sion, power and per­se­ver­ance into her per­sua­sion.  And I am per­suaded.  It is in her deter­mi­na­tion.  I like her ver­nac­u­lar.  Her response to her call­ing.  She is attuned.  She is lis­ten­ing.  She is a phe­nom­e­nal woman. I think she knows this.  I hope she knows it.  I very much wanted to know her story, what she would let loose, after so much good food had aleady been shared over the bet­ter part of a year.  I invite you to get to know Win­nielle.  She is a dawta, mother, entre­pre­neur etc etc in any order you wish. Ulti­mately she is womb­man… naturally.

Who is Win­nielle and how did she become the Irie Lioness?

Win­nielle is a womb­man who nat­u­rally strives to live in her own path.  My name is ‘African in ori­gin mean­ing vic­to­ri­ous lady’ and it moti­vates me highly, sets the tone in this life, my core.  I am a hum­ble dawta. I love to love… imper­fect but striv­ing for per­fec­tion in my own eyes. My per­fec­tion is being happy in what I have done and not to the stan­dards of any­one.  As I feel happy then it is per­fect. I am just a sim­ple African who is proud to be a black queen no mat­ter what comes and goes in my life.  I love i n i.  Irie Lioness is the womb­man I became when I learned to see my strug­gles not as some­thing bad in my life but as a real­ity that will only make me stronger and wiser.  So I move through life hav­ing an aura of irieness no mat­ter the cir­cum­stance. I smile because its eas­ier and pret­tier and makes me feel bet­ter no mat­ter the hates and grudges and rocky roads. I still trod irie, as a lioness would.

Tell me a bit about your hum­ble begin­nings. Where were you born, raised?

Born in the island of 365 beaches–Antigua and raised in Sugar City St Kitts. Grow­ing up humbly, I was always involved in some­thing. I just couldn’t sit at home after school and do noth­ing. Sports was my first love.  I did just about any sport, hence why I was a bit on the tomboy­ish vibe dur­ing my early teen years.  Yeah, funny think­ing about it… baggy jeans, over­sized shirts… hang­ing with the boys.  Still pre­fer­ring to hang and rea­son with the boys to this day.

What were some of your dreams as a youth? Who did you dream of being? Does your career and life now come close to those dreams?

My most pas­sion­ate dream was to become a model. How­ever, I also dreamed of becom­ing a hair styl­ist.  I was never taken by any­one in par­tic­u­lar; I just loved to see beau­ti­ful and skilled women on the run­way and in pho­tos. Tyra. Naomi. Kate Moss. Iman… Many oth­ers. I looked to them for inspi­ra­tion but never ever looked a any­one want­ing to be them, as mod­els was only a per­cent­age of who they were and there­fore I couldn’t want to be any­one that I didn’t know. I just admired many peo­ple for their beau­ties and skills.  To this day, indeed I have been blessed with the deter­mi­na­tion to accom­plish my dreams.  While in high school I began to work with one of the best cos­me­tol­o­gists on the island (St. Kitts) Amoy Baird.  She taught me plenty! I did that for some years and dur­ing those years I also pur­sued my dream as a model beyond my expec­ta­tions and to this day I exe­cute both skills attained when needed because they are of me. I am hum­ble for despite my life path, I made the best of all my dreams and did them positively.

You’ve mod­eled exten­sively.  How long did you work as a model?  What were some high­lights and how did achiev­ing your dream of becom­ing a model pre­pare you for Win­nielle Model Man­age­ment the 1st and now the rebirth of the agency?

Quite a long time. I began pur­su­ing my dream 100% once I got my first train­ing with Clas­sique Model Agency back in the 90’s.  I was about 16 then.  So from then on every­thing I learned and every­one I was able to meet I took full advan­tage to ele­vat­ing myself.  Soooo many high­lights. From the shows I did the peo­ple I met. The trav­els.  My most impact­ful time was dur­ing my time resid­ing in San Diego.  I was a new mom.  I knew no one and noth­ing about com­put­ers, but I knew I was in a great place full of oppor­tu­ni­ties.  So every­day I taught myself how to use the com­puter and became a wiz at net­work­ing.  I searched for agen­cies, mod­el­ing assign­ments, pho­tog­ra­phers and began mov­ing and shak­ing.  I did run­way shows, got myself an agent and I actu­ally got myself more oppor­tu­ni­ties than my agent found for me. So it also taught me that I could do it with­out wait­ing for some­one else and so I did.  There’s just so many things I did that I felt were so great. I was able to meet Ximena Valero and work for her while in Cal­i­for­nia and our rela­tion­ship to this day still flour­ishes.  Ximena Valero is one of L.A./Mexico’s top fash­ion design­ers and I am hum­bled every­day when I see her strives as she is some­one I have expe­ri­enced and learned from.

Achiev­ing my dream was vital.  I couldn’t have the knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence that is so impor­tant to being able to man­age other mod­els and show them the right way. Those were my jew­els.  All my expe­ri­ences allow me to pass on to aspir­ing mod­els what is vital to achiev­ing their goals and not just be like oth­ers who assume the posi­tion but really have lit­tle idea about what they’re doing.

Tell me about Win­nielle Model Man­age­ment. Why was its rebirth nec­es­sary in your journey?

WMM encom­passes it all. I had no idea I would actu­ally be doing this again.  It wasn’t a thought in my mind at all when I returned home (St. Kitts) in 2009.  I was con­quer­ing another dream and many peo­ple includ­ing close friends and oth­ers who have worked with me in the indus­try would approach me ask­ing when I would start and I told them upfront I had no inter­est.  I had no vibes what­so­ever for this,  but one par­tic­u­lar woman just didn’t want to hear it and never gave up on remind­ing me and let­ting me know how impor­tant I was to the fash­ion indus­try.  Kirah Grif­fith is her name and she actu­ally mod­eled with me for years in my early years of mod­el­ing.  All praises unto her for how I got back to this jour­ney.  Yes-I! I am proud and happy to be here again. Why? Because I know that it’s a beau­ti­ful jour­ney once trod the right way.  Win­nielle Model Man­age­ment within the Fed­er­a­tion has the abil­ity to guide any­one inter­ested and capa­ble into this jour­ney pos­i­tively.  So the vibes have grown and every time I meet with my stu­dents of the Model Empow­er­ment 12 week course my vibes just grows and grows.  I am lov­ing it! When they blos­som my works are well done.

When did this dream of Irie Lioness Designs first come to be? How long has it been in existence?

When I resided in St. Thomas.  I moved there in 2007.  In 2008 after pur­su­ing jobs that would give me the knowl­edge I needed to run my own cloth­ing busi­ness. The inspi­ra­tions just seem­ingly began to flow and one night the name came to mind. My idea was to seek cloth­ing from women who I felt had the same vibes as I–spiritually and cre­atively, hence Irie Lioness Designs. Soon, I began to also link with lions, so hav­ing irie lioness designs no longer seemed to work and I changed it to Irie Lioness Bou­tique. I launched the com­pany on Face­book when I returned to St. Kitts in 2009.

Who are some of the design­ers (lions/lionesses) you have show­cased and sold?

The list is mad long but those are a few: Yejide Parry (Nevis), Ximena Valero (Mex­ico) Sonia Noel (Guyana), Tuff Like Iron (New York), Mamyashi (Jamaica), RastaRe­bel­lion (Trinidad) Pat Black­man (Bar­ba­dos), Calvin South­well (Antigua).

I love your stance: “Styling beyond the ordi­nary to extraIRIE” Pow­er­ful! Tell me about it. What does it mean to you when you say this?

Give thanks. Sis to be totally hon­est, a lot of things I come up with come to me spir­i­tu­ally.  Jah just puts it in my head.  So, there is never much thought process, just a bless­ing from my father.  Basi­cally what it means for me is as it states. When I shop, I always see mul­ti­tudes of the same old ordi­nary pieces.  You go to ten stores and all have the same things. Bor­ing I say. So instead of say­ing extra ordi­nary which is also used so much I say extra irie.  The pieces I carry are just that–IRIE.  They are inspired so lov­ingly by roots, cul­ture and the good vibra­tions of life. So it is.

I find that you have a real innate and nat­ural tal­ent for mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing your busi­ness. Where does your busi­ness acu­men come from?

Pure love for it. I’ve never been taught. Never sought to learn.  It was just some­thing I had to pick up on and use my cre­ative side to help me.  I enjoy it so I always give it my all.  Every­thing I decide to do usu­ally gets the best of me.  In truth, I have never enjoyed read­ing.  I from time to time get an urge to read how­ever when it comes to sit­ting down and hav­ing to read about how to do some­thing I tend to shy away.  So I always have to go with my heart and soul, my visual and then exe­cute it with pas­sion and cre­ativ­ity that is nat­u­rally embed­ded in me.

From read­ing you, it seems that whether you were the model, the pho­tog­ra­pher, the busi­ness woman you have always been the face of your movement. 

Truth.  Well, being a sin­gle mother of three chil­dren and the only one sup­port­ing in all ways, we tend to have to be self suf­fi­cient.  So I rarely have the funds to pay some­one to do things for me and so I just do it myself. I do it my way, which saves me a whole lot in many ways.

Which do you pre­fer, being in front or behind the camera?

I enjoy them equally. It taps into both sides of my per­son­al­i­ties and skills.

You have a gor­geous fam­ily and you moved blessed and so focused in that. But you’re a mom of three with a lot on the fire at the moment. How are you strik­ing a balance?

Jah knows!  Cause if I sit down and think about it I still couldn’t give u an answer sis­tah.  Jah is car­ry­ing me. But I do work hard and love my chil­dren dearly. I am here for them and that’s my sim­ple story.

How do you take care of the Lioness? Any par­tic­u­lar reg­i­men? Any tips for women who want to main­tain and be all that they can be?

Wow! The lioness gets the last care.  Chil­dren come first.  Then me after.  Jah cares for me, sees me through all things and when it gets tough as it often gets I pray and med­i­tate then exe­cute as needed.  My chil­dren keep me busy and any­thing else just is.  I do noth­ing spe­cial at all.  I live super sim­ple with lit­tle to work with. Just eat, sleep, love, work hard and live.

I have to let you know that I really do love your out­look. I can’t say that I’ve ever read any­thing on your page that hasn’t just encour­aged me. And I don’t imag­ine that every day is pos­i­tive, but I think you do a good job of cre­at­ing that energy, that vibra­tion that makes peo­ple take that 1st, 2nd and 3rd look (even if they’re not up to any good) lol

And many aren’t up to any good, but I just move in light.  It is also ther­apy for me.  When I learn, I think I should share.  Knowl­edge is power and I know it’s vital to share so I use Face­book as the medium to do pos­i­tive to those who would accept it. Who don’t… hmm… but who does… Jah bless them sin­cerely.  I get good energy from many on here too, so it’s just nat­ural for me to share my pos­i­tive energy and send it back into the Inter­net world. One Love.

Tell about being Rasta. How long have you been Rasta? When did that move­ment start in your life and how do those roots ground you and yet still allow you to soar the way you have?

You see Rasta­fari is who I am.  It is my livety… no tim­ing… no move­ment… Just life of love, pos­i­tiv­ity,  truth, wis­dom… All things good is my life as a Rasta womb­man.  I am not one that seeks to say much on this vibra­tion for it is so sim­ple to me.  You see me, you see Rasta.  You live with me; you live with a Rasta Sim­ply said!  So it is. So I am.  Rastafari!

Now the girl in me just wants to know how long it takes to wash and style all that gor­geous hair?

Hahaha.  Awww… my hair so isn’t a bother to me don’t take me no long time, and I just wash with sham­poo and use lots of oils that smell good I’m just happy that I know how to live sim­ple in every way. I don’t put much energy into my hair as many may feel from the way it looks. With or with­out locks my hair gets just basic atten­tion so it can be clean and stay healthy

What are some of your short term and long term goals for your busi­ness? What’s the next level for the Irie Lioness?

You know my goals will be ever chang­ing.  Ever ele­vat­ing as life throws many things at you, so you must always be ready for change.  For my bou­tique, I pray to one day open a large bou­tique where I can host all the great designs from many design­ers for my peo­ple both locally and still vir­tu­ally online as well. I want to expand highly on my stock, not just cloth­ing but all things beau­ti­ful and nat­ural.  I want to be the most beau­ti­ful and most pop­u­lar roots and cul­ture store on the island where peo­ple come in almost every day just to get good vibes even if they not shop­ping all the time.  Good music. Great aura.  Great diverse prod­ucts for the masses to fulljoy. May jah bless this and I will con­tinue to do every lit­tle thing and except the obsta­cles and changes that come before I conquer.

Do you have any regrets business-wise?

Not all all. Ever learn­ing.  No regrets.  Just more lessons to learn and wise up on It’s life. I’m keep­ing on my pos­i­tive path.

What it is about music that speaks to you so well.

Well for some­one who doesn’t enjoy read­ing, it’s my way of fill­ing myself with knowl­edge, with good vibes.  Being able to mul­ti­task in all my works and life and not be con­fined to one area visu­ally.  I love music sis­tah and I don’t lis­ten to junk.  It must be uplift­ing in some way  Be it love, wis­dom, strength, most high praises–anything pos­i­tive.  I was also a dancer, always a dancer, so music hits me so spir­i­tu­ally. It heals me…yeah… music is my life…

How does Cul­ture feed your imagination?

Cul­ture is me.  Cul­ture is like air. It’s just a nat­ural need.  I am aware of it. I embrace my cul­ture and I love my cul­ture that’s really where it lies… inna my heart so its feeds my entire being and sur­faces when fitting.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Hi there, I’m Tynisha C. Leon, writer, West Indian, mango-lover, founder and editor-in-chief of DASHEEN mag­a­zine — the online des­ti­na­tion where cul­ture feeds imag­i­na­tion. Join the cul­ture con­ver­sa­tions on Face­book, Twit­ter and Tum­blr!