Ms Davis-Eden applying makeup to a model.

Make-up artist, consultant, hair stylist and most recently up and coming fashionista is the list that makes up the creativity of Letitia Davis-Eden’s personality and professional skills. Letitia was born in George Town to Delba Campbell of Grand Cayman and Foster Davis of Jamaica and studied at various schools here in the Cayman Islands, North Carolina and New York City. Today she works part-time for the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands and freelances as a make-up artist locally and overseas.

Early in life Letitia showed signs of having a strong will and unique creativity and was often thought of as an unruly teen in her unwillingness to conform to the ideology of others. “I’ve always wanted to be different, she explained.

She credits one of her former teachers as her inspiration and role model to venture forth and see her dreams to fruition. She quotes Betty Parker as saying: “Don’t sweat the small stuff, shoot for the moon because if you miss you’ll fall among the stars. You are all stars.”

Not only does Ms Davis-Eden work in the field of fashion, make-up and hair for personal fulfilment, she has also instructed the National Gallery Outreach programme Art Magnet for more than a year. Her goals for community involvement outside of work are to create a camp for girls which highlight the use of their personal talents geared towards the fashion industry. She believes that this can be used as a powerful tool for teaching vocational skills, self-love and building self-esteem in young girls.

After having trained at Dudley’s Beauty College in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1999 and Make-Up Designery (MUD), New York in 2006 including a course in Air Brushing in 2007, Letitia’s reputation as a make-up artist and hair stylist throughout the Cayman Islands has grown tremendously.

Ms Davis-Eden still does not express her talent in ways of the norm, pushing the boundaries surrounding the industry as a whole. Explaining her distinctive style she says: “I choose to look at things outside the box, in pretty much everything that I do. I don’t want to be placed in a box or see myself as a carbon copy of anyone else. As a teen I always felt I was different, my style was different, my approach was different and my outlook on life was different.”

Leaving the Cayman Islands opened Letitia’s eyes to a new way of expressing herself. She states, “I express myself through my clothing, my hair, everything. At one point every weekend I had a different look; that was when I came back from Charlotte. Being in such a small community can often hinder a person from being true to themselves and I encourage people to not be afraid to express yourself.”

The latest venture for Letitia is her involvement with the Cayfest Fresh Couture Fashion Show in March and the Fresh Couture Fashion Show for Bracfest held last weekend at the Aston Rutty Centre in Cayman Brac.

Letitia hopes to create original designs through her own company called Ayanlore; the name comes from the derivative of the names of her two daughters Alora and Ayanna; both are credited also as a source of her inspiration.

In both Fresh Couture Shows, she displayed her apt talent for fashion design by using plastic as her choice of medium throughout many of her pieces. The three most talked about designs was her “Caution Dress” with matching hat, “Silver Thatch Bustier” and green polyester shorts with matching green thatch hat as well as her “Sixties style dress” made from a plastic shower curtain and embellished with shapes cut from compact discs.

She is currently consulting with several people in the community on clothing design ideas and makes herself available for weddings and special events, and is commissioned as make-up artist for photo shoots.