Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto Market Place: 55 Designers, Makers, Artisans

Last week (May 31 - June 3),  I attended the first Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto. This outstanding event included four runway shows, panels and lectures, weaving and dyeing workshops including Indigenous artists from Canada, the United States, and Greenland. More coverage to come on the runway shows and other events, but here are some of the designers who presented at the Designer Showroom and Market Place.

The Designer Showroom, also called Original Makers Space featured traditional examples of things made for families and community celebrations: jewelry, regalia, shoes, and embroidered and appliqued clothing. Delina White, Nuuk Couture, Victoria Kakuktinniq - Victoria's Arctic Designs, Tracy Toulouse, Niio Perkins, Devon Fiddler - Shenative and Tania Larsson were featured.

Tania Larsson

Niio Perkins

The Market Place, was spread over a huge area and was organized by section: Seventh Generation, Walking in my Moccasins, Stitched and Woven, Natural Formations,  and Far North Spotlight. Outstanding photographs of the Makers and products made them easy to see and locate. Once again, heritage and language for each participant were identified. It is so important for everyone to know who made what we are buying and wearing. I think too, that meeting Designers and Artists, that personal connection, makes us value what we have, much more.I met Samantha Jacobs and her mother, Seneca Artists from the Cattaraugus Territory. They have beaded together for 20 years or more. While Samantha is known for her beaded mocassins, her mom showed me her beaded 'kitcheb pockets' which she pins to the wall to hold cell phones. In the early part of the century, these pockets were made for wealthy families who used them as calling card holders. Visitors had to be on the list and had to have made arrangements before dropping in.

Samantha Jacobs and Mom

Sydney Jacobs - KEN'NIWA'A, makes her children's line and quilts at the Mohawk reservation of Akwesasne. She illustrates and custom prints her own material. I loved her one of a kind black and white quilt, her dresses, modelled by her daughter and her beautiful dolls and toys, that tell the stories of her culture and language.

 

Sydney Jacobs

This was a dynamic, multiday event that demonstrated the Artists at work and showed how designs and products are both traditional and modern. This was a living Art Gallery with free access and a powerful Education for everyone. Culture, heritage, language, all thriving, all being passed along generation to generation.