Sage Paul and six designers bring Canadian Indigenous perspectives to fashion’s world stage
in Canada for more than a decade. The Toronto-based Dene designer and Indigenous Fashion Arts executive’s next mission: breaking down barriers in the global industry. This week, Paul has brought six Indigenous designers from across the country to Milan Fashion Week to showcase their work at the highly regarded trade show“I want our work valued.
At the beginning of her career, Paul admits she felt like a “fish out of water” at standard fashion shows which featured requisite struts, stares and industry seriousness. “For a long time, the fashion industry has been an exclusive space, gate-kept by aristocrats, socialites and financially wealthy people. I am none of those things,” says Paul.
In Milan, she expects to find the celebratory and welcoming energy which IFA’s events usually offer: “People are loud, jumping into each other’s arms and giving big hugs. Instead of seeing models who are all standardized, I see people who look like me and clothing that is relevant to me. It feels like we’re working on something together that is really important.”
“I see Indigenous fashion as storytelling,” says Hampton. “There’s always a sense of empowerment and community that’s thrusting our brands forward. There’s greater intention than just showing something at fashion week, it is the community that we’re trying to lift up along the way.”Justin Louis from Samson Cree Nation in Treaty 6 Territory is the founder and creative director of SECTION 35, an Indigenous-owned streetwear brand.
SECTION 35’s All My Relations Letterman Jacket is inspired by the past and present. The stars represent ancestors, and the horse is inspired by the horses and regalia Louis grew up with. Her earrings have combinations of bright, bold bead colours such as robin-egg blue, carnation or flamingo pink, and often depict scenes from her village. . She also incorporates strips of seal skin and moose hide.
Her newest piece, which also took the longest to complete – two years – is a moose-hide and netted-rabbit-skin coat, based off an old style of cutting rabbit skin into a string and looping it. Perkins came into her personal design aesthetic at age 25. She wanted to wear meaningful beaded items in her everyday life to match her casual clothes: jeans, hoodies, leather jackets and sneakers. She infused a modern aesthetic, materials and fabrics and vibrant colourways with the traditional Iroquois raised beadwork technique which she learned from her, Elizabeth Perkins, a master seamstress and traditional clothing designer.
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