Last Updated on Saturday, 12 April 2025, 9:13 by Writer
An American-Guyanese fashion designer has accused the Guyana government of stealing her intellectual property by using her proposal to organise an almost identical event to support President Irfaan Ali’s re-election campaign, but the Tourism Minister Oneidge Walrond on Friday bluntly rejected the woman’s claims.
“I have never seen a proposal from her that has anything about this concept,” Ms Walrond told Demerara Waves Online News.
Ms Marrisa Wilson said she found it “deeply upsetting” that her proposal that she had submitted to Ms Walrond three years ago for a fashion runway show to celebrate Guyanese culture, grow the local fashion industry, and bring tourism to the country was now being used for electioneering purposes. “Fast forward to today: the government is now doing the exact same idea. But this time, it’s politicized, designed to support the president’s reelection campaign—not the country or fashion industry,” Ms Wilson said on her Instagram post.
Ms Wilson said the festival’s organising director reached out to bring her on on the creative and production team and to support educational efforts. She said over several weeks, they shared ideas, brand materials—including videos and images of her work with Mr. Alex Graham. “As a follow up, he asked for a full proposal. We delivered. Then—we never heard from him again,” the woman said.
She said the government was now using Marrisa Wilson New York “ideas, language, and even photos and videos of me and my work to legitimise this event. Without our approval. Without our participation. And without compensation.”
“They are using my brand and my name to suggest credibility, garner press and gain sponsors, while ignoring every aspect of the proposal and strategy that would actually make an impact for the Guyanese people,” she said. Ms Wilson dissociated herself with the Origins Guyana Fashion Festival and demanded that all her photos and materials taken down immediately.
Ms Walrond said Mr Graham, who was independently contracted to organise the event, has since been instructed to remove all of fashion designer Ms Marissa Wilson’s material from promotions and publications associated with the Origins Guyana Fashion Festival scheduled for May 2-4,2025. “Nothing from Marissa’s work product was stolen. When she asked that the things be removed , we removed it. They removed it with her image,” she said.
She said she was in no way in contact with Ms Wilson about the upcoming event, but it was Mr Graham who had done so. “I don’t know what arrangement they had and at the opening of the fashion designer festival, Alex was sure that she was on board and she was on board because she sent him a video for us to use at the media launch,” Ms Walrond said. She has since asked Mr Graham to provide all of his correspondence with Ms Wilson.
The Tourism Minister said Mr Graham assured her that he had received Ms Wilson’s permission to use her material and that she was still part of the event. Ms Walrond said she had been enthusiastic about Ms Wilson’s participation up to Thursday when the list of the designers that would be coming from the Diaspora was being examined. “I was floored when somebody sent me this Instagram post,” she said.
Ms Walrond said she only quite recently recalled Ms Wilson reaching out to her in 2022, sending a “brand brief” seeking the Guyana government’s sponsorship for a US$50,000 “Runway Show” in New York. However, the minister said government could not have afforded that initiative and Ms Wilson was informed. “I have spoken with the Guyana Tourism Authority about your discussions thus far and they have identified to me their exhaustion in resources at this time in light of the much-anticipated Cricket Carnival next month,” Kadeem Gordon, Legal Assistant to the Minister told Ms Wilson on August 9, 2022. The Minister also told Demerara Waves on Friday that “there was no proposal about bringing Guyanese designers together, none of that,” she said. “The concept that she sent was about her fashion show.”
With specific reference to the Origins Guyana Fashion Festival, the Tourism Minister said Mr Graham said Ms Wilson was interested in performing his functions. The minister said if she had recalled interacting with her she would have engaged her to run off the event.
The Minister said the event is geared at promoting Guyana’s fashion industry and Mr Graham was tasked with bringing in diaspora designers to network with their local counterparts with the aim of creating a fashion industry.
The fashion designer said the fashion show was about being exploited for political optics noting that it’s about willingly not pursuing a strategy that actually can make real change in a country. “I urge local Guyanese designers: if you choose to participate in this political stunt, ask your government questions. Demand transparency. Do not let your government use your creativity for their political gain while offering you nothing in return,” she said.
But, Ms Walrond dismissed Ms Wilson’s assertions about political motives behind the event and long-term plan. “There has been nothing, nothing about politics. This is a vision that the President has had for a number of years,” she said. Expressing surprise about Ms Wilson’s “vitriol”, she assumed that all of the arrangements had been tied up for Ms Wilson to one of the participants at next month’s event.
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