BEING ALI

Alivern Smith-Harrigan is a fashion retailer and stylist intent on supporting women with one sole purpose - revealing their beauty from the inside out.

By Erin Paviour-Smith • Photography by Kamaal Lettsome

On a sunny morning in Road Town, Alivern or Ali as her friends call her, buzzes about her fashion and accessories store Beautiful by Jasanay, putting together looks for our High Street to the Hills feature.

Accompanied by long-time righthand woman and store manager, Marsha David - the two match clothing and accessories with an unspoken ease.

The early years

Ali started out in the fashion industry over 35-years ago with Tropical Sunshine, a modeling group who performed at fashion shows locally and around the Caribbean. In the early 1990s she joined forces with Terry Donovan working with the Miss World British Virgin Islands pageant in a role that encompassed everything from caring for the contestants to securing sponsorship.

Fast-forward to the early 2000s when Ali began suffering from skin blemishes on her neck. “To cover it, I started wearing funky necklaces” she says.

The necklaces drew positive attention, so Ali began selling accessories from the back of her car initially just to co-workers and friends, but due to the consistently high demand she opened an accessories store. “The irony is that Beautiful by Jasanay began out of my insecurities” she continues.

Ali wanted to call the company

“Beautiful”, but husband and cofounder Glenn Harrigan suggested adding “by Jasanay”, a combination of their four childrens’ names - Jaida, Alyssa, Chanelle and Rayvern (Ja-san-ay).

In 2005, Beautiful By Jasanay opened at Village Cay Marina selling primarily jewellery and accessories. Village Cay management suggested adding clothing to the product line to generate sales from their guests. Ali was already traveling internationally to source inventory, so it was easy to introduce clothing to the repertoire.

To Ali’s surprise, the clothing wasn’t purchased by tourists, it was snapped up by the local community. “Customers began asking me to dress them for special occasions, events, weddings and even work and it just grew from there” she says.

A recent addition to the line-up is shoes, which make Beautiful By Jasanay a one-stop shopping destination that dresses ladies from head-to-toe.

A bigger purpose

“Our goal is to bring out the inner beauty and support women to be the best they can be - Tell us who, why, where and when and we’ll do the rest. We love to create looks, not just sell labels” she says.

Ali not only loves to help all women in our community to look and feel beautiful – including an annual commitment to support the Miss

BVI and Mrs BVI pageants, but she is also passionate about helping them improve their emotional and mental wellbeing via a series of conversation parties that address topics affecting women.

Ali thanks her valued customers and team. Supporter of over 17-years, Marsha David, Angelle Cameron and Kareem-Nelson Hull for Promotions and her biggest supporters, husband Glenn and their four children. •