Milan Fashion Week to showcase indigenous designers – WWD

Native American designs arrive at Milan Fashion Week.

Kicking off a three-year partnership with the White Milano show, Toronto’s Indigenous Fashion Arts non-profit organization will bring seven designers to Italy from February 24-27 with the goal of increasing their global visibility.

Designers include Lesley Hampton, a Temagami First Nation designer who is also a curvy model with B&M Model Management, and is known for her activewear, tulle, and pleated eveningwear including plus sizes; Evan Ducharme, a metis artist with ancestral ties to the Cree, Ojibwe and Saulteaux peoples, who designs tailoring and separates with “heightened utilitarianism,” and Section 35 streetwear designer Justin Louis of Samson Cree Nation, who recently collaborated with Foot Locker Canada. in a collection modeled by Amber Midthunder.

lesley hampton

The other guest designers are Dorothy Grant, a 30-year veteran of the fashion industry who incorporates Haida art into her work; Iroquois bead designer Niio Perkins; Robyn McCloud, a designer inspired by “Dene Futurism”, and Erica Donovan, who makes jewelry inspired by the land and its Inuvialuit culture.

The commercial partnership with White Milano was negotiated by the Canadian Embassy in Italy and the group of designers selected by Indigenous Fashion Arts, which held its first fashion festival in Toronto in 2018 and is planning its next one in 2024.

“Our goals are to celebrate and champion, introduce and support indigenous designers in the industry,” Sage Paul, the organization’s founding executive and artistic director, said of her vision. “We treat our shows as artistic performances. And it is our mandate to pay the fees of the artists. So we produce the shows, we raise funds to pay for production and other staff, but we also pay designers to present their work, which is pretty rare. In most fashion shows, you would have to pay to participate.”

In Milan, in addition to the trade show booth, the group will hold a panel discussion on what is indigenous fashion and how to work with indigenous designers.

“We want to build these market spaces for indigenous designers. Our hope is that we can have a delegation every two years,” said Paul, who has also led groups to London Fashion Week.

On the broader topic of Indian fashion, which was celebrated last year at the 100th anniversary of the Indian Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he added: “The appetite and demand from audiences and consumers has definitely increased. Also, in our communities at large, we are gaining sovereignty over the work we do and how we do it… It can be really daunting when there are so many differences in politics, culture and religion, but fashion is one. point where we can examine that together in a generative way.”

Source: news.google.com