Indigenous voices have largely been absent from Canadian fashion, even as other marginalized communities have seen slightly more representation—and when Indigenous aesthetics do show up, it’s often cultural appropriation. But that’s all about to change.
Designer Lesley Hampton on casting diverse models “Designers like myself and Hayley Elsaesser bring diversity to the forefront of top fashion weeks in Canada. I wish more designers would follow suit, even if it were to begin with [committing to casting] a percentage of their roster to include size and ethnic diversity to represent the diversity of society. As welcoming as many Canadians are, the fashion community has been slow to change to being more diverse and inclusive.
IFWTO founder Sage Paul on getting past appropriation “I have been mostly ignored or excluded because the expectation was that I should fit into the existing construct of Western fashion, culturally, economically and socially. That system, that construct, simply doesn’t allow for Indigenous designers to thrive, and anything that is diverse becomes really tokenized and commodified.