Brian MacFarlane's 2017 presentation: Cazabon: The Art of Living, has ignited a fierce debate on social media.

While some have praised the all-white costumes for their elaborate designs, others have come out against the glorification of a dark period for African people.

MacFarlane launched his band at Queen's Royal College, one of the magnificent seven buildings around the Queen's Park Savannah.

The bandleader came out of a three-year retirement from Carnival to launch his new concept, which he promised would be a one-off band as he will not be launching a band in 2018.

"The reason I ended up going with that name is that I set the whole feeling and design of the band in that era late1800s, early1900s. In the time of Cazabon, it was really the most beautiful time," he explained to the audience.

"Cazabon was in a time when art was fabulous. Cazabon is world renowned," he said, praising the fashion and architecture of the Cazabon period.

MacFarlane said his band will not be competing even if they cross the stage but he will be offering a presentation for the people, of the people.

However, when the images for the band were released on Sunday morning, some people were moved in a different way.

Of particular concern was a section called La Belle Dame and Garçon de la Maison, which depicted a barefoot man in suspenders and pants alongside a well-dressed woman.

"Mas was never a representation and certainly not an exaltation of the plantation life it was born there as a method of warfare, no enslaved african ever joyfully played the whore or the house boy come carnival time. they mocked the white people. they never mocked their own selves," wrote Muhammad Muwakil of Freetown Collective.

Muwakil sent an open invitation to MacFarlane to discuss his concept behind the mas at the University of the West Indies.

"This is a very serious and important matter and should be treated with the requisite respect. I'm saying this because i know the level of offense felt by many, before you take this on the road. Let's be clear about what you all are saying here. Let us be very very clear. And to anyone who asks who am i to request this, i am an inheritor of a rich and constantly misunderstood history. I am a guardian of tomorrow," he wrote.

In a long Facebook analysis of the MacFarlane controversy, Kevin Browne saw the band as a reflection of Trinidad and Tobago society today.

"A mas mirror is being held up to us (as if we need a reminder of the racism, both understated and overstated, that defines every postcolonial dystopia). If only it mattered who was holding the mirror. Aside from the so-called messenger is the message. Anyone who knows anything about Mas will tell you that Mas is never "just a mas." Never. And mirrors, as we know, have no shame. So Macfarlane is unimportant in this regard. I mean that. (Read objectively, even Judas's motives can be understood as something other than betrayal.)," he wrote.

There were those who defended MacFarlane's mas, stating that it is just art.

"Dear world, your mas can be whatever you want it to be.... That's what makes it so beautiful and dynamic. So let's stop criticising people's creative outputs and just find the piece that best speaks to us. If nothing out there speaks to you, then that's another beautiful thing because it leaves opportunity for creation," one Facebook user said.

MacFarlane is expected to address the controversy during the second installment of his Heritage Talks on Tuesday at 12 pm.