INDIGENOUS STYLE GOES GLOBAL
First Nations designers from B.C. and beyond are heading to Paris fashion week
March 1 will be a special day for Linda Kay Peters.
Standing beneath the Eiffel Tower, the Hope-based designer will watch as 15 of her handmade, couture-quality creations are showcased on the runway as part of Indigenous Fashion Week.
The Paris fashion week appearance will also provide the 65-yearold designer with the opportunity to share with the fashion world what matters to her most: her Cree and Ojibwa heritage.
“It’s exciting and it’s important because I’m very proud to be a First Nations person. And I like to produce and create clothing that symbolizes us,” says Peters, who is a member of the Sto:Lo Seabird Island First Nation in Agassiz. “There’s a lot of pride in sharing who you are.”
Through her brand, Ringing Bell Robes, Peters creates garments that proudly showcase both her design talents and her culture.
In total, there will be 10 international Indigenous designers joining the Paris Indigenous Fashion Week event. Peters will be joined by Melissa Attagutsiak, Ingrid Books, Chermene Castle, Jolonzo Goldtooth, Yolonda Skelton, Sho Sho Esquiro, Della Stump, Victor Buguilat Jr. and Victoria’s Arctic Fashion.
While each is unique, portraying symbols and design components of each designer’s heritage, the creations showcased on the Paris runway will look to present one message to the fashion world, at a time when so many industry eyes will be watching.
“I want people to know that Indigenous designers are people, too, and they deserve the recognition,” says Chelsa Racette, the executive director of Indigenous Fashion Week.
While some steps have been made in the right direction (Valentino partnered with Metis artist Christi Belcourt in 2015, for example), the fashion industry has had a troubled past with appropriation, including Indigenous designs. DSQUARED2, Forever 21, Givenchy and Urban Outfitters are just a few of the brands and retailers who have featured designs and symbols on their clothing.
It’s a practice that doesn’t sit right with Peters and Racette.
“Designers who want to have an ‘Indigenous-inspired’ line need to work alongside an Indigenous designer,” Racette says.
“Most Indigenous designers have a story to tell with their designs. It’s the way they express their art and their history. It’s not only a ‘what’s in for this season’ type of line, it’s based on their traditions and values. It’s an everyday thing for them.”
Adds Peters: “Appropriation is happening everywhere you turn around.
“It bothers me a lot when I see this happen as Indigenous people have lost so much already — our land, our languages, our culture — and this is just another form of taking away from us again.
“That is why we are trying to hang on to what little we have left — the land, the resources — and trying our best to revive our culture.” Peters hopes showcasing Indigenous designs at an international fashion event like Paris Fashion Week will be a way to “present to the world that we are still here, alive and thriving.”
The increased awareness, Peters says, is especially important as Indigenous symbols become increasingly of interest. “First Nations styles and symbols are becoming very popular, where before, they weren’t. And I think that’s why there is more appropriation now,” she says.
“We’re just starting to get the recognition and not have somebody just take one of our designs and make it their own.”
Some steps have been taken to help protect Indigenous designers and artists, she points out. In B.C., a non-profit group, the Aboriginal Tourism Association of B.C., created the Authentic Indigenous Arts Resurgence Campaign to help people identify authentic creations. Similar programs have also popped up in other communities across Canada and around the world.
The message of protection — and proper representation — is especially poignant for Peters, who recalls how, when growing up in Red Lake, Ont., she once felt very differently about her heritage.
“There’s been so much prejudice against First Nations people. And I grew up in a world where being First Nations wasn’t accepted. So, I grew up with a lot of racism. And, as a child, I wasn’t proud to be a First Nations person. But I am now,” she says. “Sharing my clothing with First Nations symbols and design is a real source of pride for me. And I enjoy being able to share that with the world.”
At the fashion event in Paris, Peters will be joined by four models who have been longtime supporters of her designs, helping to showcase and support her creations from the start.
“My First Nations models — Charity Joe and Judith Pete from Chawathil First Nations, Dayna Nelson from Long Plains First Nations … and Rena Louis from Seabird Island First Nations — these four ladies have modelled for me since they were in their teens, and I wanted to give them the opportunity to model in Paris as a show of my appreciation for presenting my clothing over the years at various fashion shows,” she says. “They helped to get me where I am today.”
But talent, perseverance and an unerring love of learning have also contributed to Peters’ success, not to mention a longtime appreciation for the craft of sewing.
“I’ve never taken any formal training. I’m all self-taught. So everything is a bit of a challenge,” she explains. “I started sewing as a child, hand-sewing. My grandmother taught me how to use her treadle machine.”
Peters soon graduated to making curtains. Then, in her teens, she recalls how she started to make her own clothes. After taking a break from the hobby in her teens, she returned to the craft in 1996. Peters credits Carol Mason, an Indigenous designer from the Blood Reserve in Alberta, with helping bring her back to sewing.
Sharing my clothing with First Nations symbols and design is a real source of pride for me.
“She kind of got me going and mentored me. She brought her portfolio to work and showed me. And I started sewing and designing from then,” she recalls. After mastering outerwear, which Peters laughingly points out was “the hardest thing to start with,” she segued into creating vests and formal wear designs. Since retiring three years ago from a career that saw her work for 30 years in Aboriginal Health, she’s tackling a new challenge in design.
“Within the last few years, I’ve started making buckskin clothing,” she explains.
“With the buckskin, I’ve got into complete hand-lacing. There is no machine stitching on it. It’s totally different, for sure.”
The first buckskin she made was for herself, as a traditional dress for her to dance in.
Peters’ initial design caught the eye of a bridal magazine in Calgary that was looking to feature a gown from an Indigenous designer. She made them an impressive white buckskin gown with three metres of fringe. And her business took off from there.
She went on to make a white buckskin for Ashley Callingbull of the Enoch First Nation, which she wore during the Mrs. Universe competition in Russia. Callingbull won the title, becoming the first Indigenous woman to do so.
“She put a call out on Facebook looking for First Nations designers because she wanted to wear a buckskin for her cultural portion of the pageantry. And a few people recommended me. So, I got a hold of her and sent a picture of that white buckskin that I did for the bridal magazine and she liked it and wanted to wear it,” she says. “When I heard she won the title, I was so excited
“She really used her platform to come back and talk about some of the issues facing First Nations people. I was very proud of her.”
Now in “retirement,” Peters’ new goal is to tan her own hides.
Creating the designs, which average from $600 to $2,000 for a handmade buckskin garment, has become not only a source of pride for the designer, but a constant source of excitement, too.
“As it materializes, when I first start with either a fabric or a hide, it’s exciting to me to see the end result. I’ve never seen myself as being able to produce something so beautiful, and when (a design) turns out to be what it is, it’s exciting,” she says. “It’s like walking, wearable art.”
It’s exciting to me to see the end result. I’ve never seen myself as being able to produce something so beautiful.