Victoria Kakuktinniq
Victoria Kakuktinniq is an artist and fashion designer, born and raised in Kangiqliniq (Rankin Inlet), NU. She is the proprietor of the Iqaluit-based design label Victoria’s Arctic Fashions (VAF), and was the winner of the 2015 Nunavut Trade Show’s Business of the Year Award. VAF produces high-end contemporary fashions for women and men, using sealskin (sometimes dyed in eye-dazzling colours) and leather, along with modern rip-resistant fabrics engineered for cold weather. Her parka and blazer designs are contemporary, sophisticated and very functional. Embellished with fine detail and fur trim, Victoria’s body-shaping designs draw upon long-standing Inuit clothing patterns that date back many centuries. Victoria learned to sew from women in her community before honing her talents at MC College in Winnipeg, MB, where she took Fashion Design and Apparel Production. Victoria is an “Artist to Know”, not only for her outstanding designs, but also because she is part of a young generation of artist-entrepreneurs popping-up across the North. These are artists who are creating their own businesses, working outside the normal channels of Inuit art distribution, liaising directly with customers and retailers, and using social media and the web to build a market for their creative work in Canada and the world.