Designer Jawara Alleyne on the Mythology of Sirens

This story is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2025 issue of AnOther Magazine: 

“I spent my youth surrounded by water and mythical stories, even if they weren’t always told out loud. In Cayman, pirate history lingers quietly along the coastline, in the names of places, in the feeling that something unruly once passed through. And in Jamaica the land feels charged with mysticism, with a spirituality that seeps into everything. When I was 12 I started working in a bookstore – filling the shelves, sweeping and reading. That’s where I began to understand the local mythology, to see how stories are shaped and who gets to tell them. The siren kept returning – seductive, dangerous, unknowable, but also powerful – a woman in control. That’s the energy I now chase in my work. My garments are propositions – they wait for someone to inhabit them. I’m not telling her story, I’m offering space for it to unfold. My Aunt Nicola was my first siren – fierce, grounded. She was a paramedic. She could be saving lives one moment and heading out to live hers the next. That mix of strength, sensuality and depth – that’s the siren. That’s the woman I’m designing for.”

Born in Jamaica and raised in the Cayman Islands, the 33-year-old designer Jawara Alleyne is carving out a name for himself. His garments – slashed, pierced and bound with pins, rings and ties – speak a language of survival and seduction, rooted in Caribbean spirituality and postcolonial memory. In 2020, fresh from his MA in fashion at Central Saint Martins, he launched his eponymous label and quickly garnered the support of the London talent incubator Fashion East. That momentum earned him a place in the wardrobes of the music and fashion elite – Shakira, Dua Lipa, and Rihanna, who has called Alleyne her favourite designer. Now he returns the praise: “When I think of the siren, I see Rihanna. She is the ultimate.” 

This story features in the Autumn/Winter 2025 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is on sale now.