Sonia Noel carries a piece of Guyana onto the world stage
October 19, 2026
Long before Sonia Noel’s designs reached international runways, she was a little girl in Bartica making clothes from newspaper for her dolls and showing school friends how to wrap their heads.
Decades later, that riverside childhood still shapes her work, from the earth tones she favours to the beads and natural materials she incorporates into clothing that offers customers far from Guyana a reminder of home.
As Noel celebrates 30 years in fashion, she measures her success not only by the reach of her designs, but also by the people who have found confidence, started businesses or gained a platform through her work.
“What I am most proud of is using that platform to launch careers, to inspire lives and to transform lives,” she said.
Her creations have attracted international attention.
Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams included a poncho from Noel’s First Resort collection in her touring wardrobe during her involvement with Fela! and wore it on U.S. national television.
Donna Hinkson, wife of Saint Lucian jazz guitarist Ronald ‘Boo’ Hinkson, wore a Noel creation to the 2016 Grammy Awards.
More recently, the connection between clothing, identity and opportunity was evident during the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) in Georgetown, where delegates admired her designs and bought pieces.
Sonia Noel attended the cultural event at the Railway Courtyard for CTO delegates and other invitees (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
For Noel, those exchanges illustrate how tourism can create opportunities for the creative industries. Someone noticing her clothing could spark a conversation, lead them to explore her work and ultimately turn an introduction into a sale.
“They come to see us and what we have to offer,” she said of visitors. “And many times, they want to go back with a piece of that.”
The inspiration for those pieces begins at home.
Born and raised in Bartica, Noel grew up watching an aunt whose wardrobe offered an early education in style.
She remembers studying the dresses, touching fabrics and admiring how her aunt put an outfit together, right down to the shoes.
“My favourite place was her room, and I would go in her wardrobe, and I’d be touching everything and looking at the concepts of the style that she wore,” Noel said. “And I’d be like, one day I want to have so many dresses. And then she had shoes to match everything. She was just such a fashionista.”
Clothes passed on to her became opportunities to experiment. She altered them to fit and developed her own ideas about what she wanted to wear.
In a community associated with mining, however, fashion design did not seem an obvious career choice to everyone.
Noel recalled enthusiastically announcing her ambition at school and learning years later that a teacher had privately doubted it was possible. That teacher subsequently used her story as an example of what could be achieved.
“Yes, I am a dreamer, but I also dream with the intention of making it a reality,” she noted.
An early pageant helped build her confidence.
At age 11, Noel came up with the designs for her outfits and finished as first runner-up.
For a shy child who sometimes stayed silent in class despite knowing an answer, the experience changed how she saw herself.
“I could remember looking at myself in the mirror after that pageant, and the reflection I saw was different,” said Noel. “Even in school I started interacting more because there were times in class I knew the answer, and I thought I was going to sound stupid and I didn’t say anything. So, confidence is really important.”
That memory helps explain her enthusiasm for Confidence Becomes You, a programme through which she encourages others to develop self-assurance.
Before pursuing fashion full-time, Noel taught for two years at Bartica Community High and co-ordinated the Bartica Regatta pageant, earning an income while developing her ambitions as a designer.
Her family became part of the business’s identity. She named her adult clothing label, Mariska’s Designs, after her eldest daughter, Mariska Fiedtkou, and her children’s line after her younger daughter, Shonta Noel.
Moving from Bartica to Georgetown widened Noel’s market and brought her closer to opportunities beyond Guyana.
The landscapes and buildings of home continue to influence her work.
Noel’s signature lattice motif draws inspiration from the country’s traditional architecture. Sometimes it dominates a garment; elsewhere it appears as a restrained detail at a hem or sleeve.
“People always say, 'Your work is art and it is not just wearing something’,” she said. “Every time they wear a piece, they wear a piece of Guyana.”
Sonia Noel marked Guyana’s 60th independence anniversary last May by designing a striking couture evening gown that incorporated the national flag into her signature lattice style (Photo contributed)
That connection can be expressed through an elaborate design or a small detail.
“Some of it is just a little hem, just like this, what I am wearing here, the bottom of the sleeves,” Noel said. “But when they wear that, wherever they go, they’re taking a piece of this precious land of ours, the land of many waters and most hospitable people in the world with them.”
Sonia Noel (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Building a market for that work also meant confronting assumptions about the value of Caribbean design.
Noel has encountered customers who compare the price of an original garment with something mass-produced overseas. She believes greater appreciation of the region’s creativity must accompany efforts to expand its fashion industry.
Her customers increasingly appreciate the work and individuality behind the price. That creativity is a source of regional pride for her.
“I feel happy to be born on this side of the world,” Noel said.
Sonia Noel in 2012 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
One of the most difficult periods came in 2005, when flooding devastated her Georgetown operation.
Noel remembered walking in and seeing materials underwater. Among the objects floating in the flood was a photograph of children from Joshua House, a children’s home she had supported through an early fashion fundraiser.
The picture reminded her of what her work had already made possible, even as the damage forced her to consider how to begin again.
Noel decided to explore relocating temporarily, weighing Suriname against Barbados. Both offered an existing client base, but language, her daughters’ schooling and regional travel connections helped tip the decision towards Barbados.
She initially left the children with their grandmother while she established a home and business.
A friend involved in costume design was also looking for premises. They found a property that could accommodate their work, and Noel converted part of the space into a boutique.
She arranged a show, sought publicity and began rebuilding. Within months, she had a separate shop. Another followed, and her daughters joined her.
Barbados became home for five years before she returned to Guyana in 2010. The island remains her biggest market.
The experience required Noel to manage without the extended family support she had known at home. It also introduced her to people and possibilities that expanded her sense of what she could achieve.
“If the mountain was smooth, I couldn’t get to the top,” she said. “So even today when I face challenges, I always think this is a stepping stone to getting to the next level. I use the rough patches because you can’t grip when it’s smooth. So, I use that for my grip to get up. I look to see what is the lesson in it.”
While living in Barbados, Noel began developing an idea that would create opportunities for designers in Guyana.
Travelling around the region, she was conscious of how often she was the only Guyanese designer present. She knew there was talent at home, but the cost of travelling to overseas shows limited access.
Guyana Fashion Weekend, launched in 2007 and later known as Guyana Fashion Week, sought to bring an audience to that talent.
Noel recalled assembling a team and initially hoping to remain in an advisory role. When doubts emerged about whether the project was too ambitious, she returned to Guyana determined to make it happen.
Designers needed visibility, models needed experience and emerging talent needed somewhere to begin. Bringing overseas participants and media to Guyana also generated demand for transport, accommodation and meals, while introducing visitors to local clothing, jewellery, food and music.
Noel believes those opportunities grow when Caribbean creatives work together.
“I do believe in partnership and collaboration,” she said. “I do believe that out there in the world, we all have a place and we just have to carve out that niche.”
That belief is reflected in her longstanding friendship and creative partnership with Trinidadian fashion director and producer Richard Young who is a perfectionist and advocate for Caribbean aesthetics.
Their collaborations have included runway shows and initiatives supporting Caribbean talent, and Noel has publicly credited his creativity, encouragement and belief in her brand.
Canada has been part of that international journey.
She visited Toronto in the summer of 2005 for a Guyana trade show marking the country’s independence anniversary. Other fashion engagements followed, including the Toronto launch of Guyana Fashion Weekend at Trane Studio in July 2010, her most recent visit to Canada.
Sonia Noel with models at Guyana Fashion Weekend launch in Toronto in 2010 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The connection took on new significance this year when she launched her 30th anniversary celebrations at the Canadian High Commissioner’s residence in Guyana.
Noel hopes to return to Canada next year and reconnect with the Guyanese and wider Caribbean communities that supported her early work.
“Being exposed to certain markets like the first world always makes your eye see things through a different lens,” she said. “As I look at my 30 years, all the stops, all the hubs everywhere that I would have gone, I took something away.”
Noel’s work has increasingly extended into writing and entrepreneurship.
She published Living with Intention and developed the Women Across Borders anthologies, encouraging women to share experiences they sometimes doubted anyone would want to read.
Inner Wardrobe, a book Noel is working on, explores the personal development behind outward expression.
“For me, the inner wardrobe is the foundation for becoming the best version of myself,” she said. “I believe every life has a story and every story can inspire someone else.”
Noel’s support for entrepreneurs will take centre stage at the Women in Business Expo, scheduled for October 24 and 25 at the Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown.
The initiative she founded in 2016 will bring together 30 business owners for a special anniversary edition. Participants will showcase products and services, connect with customers and explore growth opportunities. The event forms part of her celebrations marking three decades in fashion.
While visiting Toronto in 2010, Sonia Noel attended the launch of Caribbean sports broadcaster Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira’s autobiography, Living My Dreams. From left are Miguel San Vicente, co-owner of A Different Booklist bookstore with his wife, Itah Sadu (right), Dessie Fanfair, Perreira, Ron Fanfair and former West Indies cricket captain Clive Lloyd (Photo contributed)
Behind the public achievements, however, were difficult choices about work and family.
As a single mother building an international career, Noel sometimes missed important moments in her daughters’ lives. She recalled being overseas for a fashion engagement when one daughter was valedictorian.
“There are different moments I wanted to be there because I was a single mother,” she pointed out. “I had to navigate so many parts of trying to be the best possible mother I could be and then provide for them at the same time while building my career. But I must say that they understood, and they understand now better.”
Both daughters are now mothers, an experience she said has deepened their appreciation of her sacrifices.
During one telephone conversation, a daughter who was tired from travelling for work and helping her child with homework reflected on how her mother had managed.
“She said, ‘You never complained and you made it look so easy’,” Noel recalled. “She said, ‘Mom, I don’t know how you did it’.”
Although she once hoped they would follow her into fashion, Noel recognizes that the work may eventually be carried forward by someone she has mentored.
For now, she continues to create and make space for others. When she needs stillness, she seeks familiar comforts -- early mornings, a hammock, a river, a sunrise or sunset.
Bartica offers another kind of reflection.
On one recent visit, she looked towards the beach where she had played and imagined her younger self running, laughing and swimming.
“I said, you have come a far way from walking the streets selling cakes and pastries to where you are today,” Noel added.
