Runway Trends: Years in the Making

WORDS BY DANA BOWEN

AS MODELS STRUTTED DOWN THE INUVIK RUNWAY IN JULY, adorned in sealskin, polar bear, layers of fringe and iridescent beads, it became clear the Arctic Fashion Show spoke to what tradition can bring to the table today.

Arctic Fashion Show has been part of Inuvik’s Great Northern Arts Festival for about 30 years, but its first-time organizers Erica Lugt and Lesley Villeneuve were prepared to give the show a new look, while still holding its roots in the past. This year’s theme for the Great Northern Arts Festival was especially fitting: Clothed in Culture.

“I’m still smiling after last night’s show,” said Lugt the day after the July show. “It went really well and better than we expected. I felt it brought the vision that we wanted to life and had a lot of really good responses.”

Because of a strong desire to ignite passion in others for Inuvialuit fashion, Lugt decided that rather than bringing in historical outfits from the Yellowknife museum, as done previously, she would collect handmade pieces by those in the community.

The event featured 39 looks, which Lugt said required her and Villeneuve to “raid family members’ closets” to find traditional pieces to showcase.

She had at first asked designers in the community to contribute pieces for the show, but found many were reluctant to create outfits for art, rather than sale.

Lugt, a designer herself, has worked with other artists who were happy to showcase their art on runways, including Nunavut-based Victoria’s Arctic Fashion, with whom Lugt collaborated to show off her earrings at Paris Fashion Week.

But Lugt explained that sort of self-promotion isn’t as common for artists in the Beaufort Delta.

“That hasn’t been introduced to my part of the world yet,” she added.

It also comes down to the cost of creating such outfits, explained Helen Kitekudlak, an elder seamstress from Ulukhaktok. Although Inuvialuit designers today often opt for more accessible materials than what was used traditionally, the price of making one item still comes up to a pretty penny to buy the material needed.

For example, the cost of materials for an outer parka – a light layer worn over a heavy coat – can add up to $100 in the North, averaging about $20 a metre.

It’s the reason why Kitekudlak said she often waits until her trips to Edmonton to buy materials; it’s simply cheaper, she explained. That’s not to mention the hours that go into creating a single piece.

“It does take a lot of time putting (a parka) together,” said Savannah Elias- Beaulieu, who modelled two parkas and semi-mukluks made by her mother, Eleanor Elias.

Though they were made by her mother, Elias-Beaulieu said she had designed them herself, including a brilliant red-and-black fitted parka. Complete with red sealskin at the hem and cuffs, the neckline featured a luxurious red fox fur collar. Strips of embroidery above the hem and along the arms accentuate it.

However, from creating patterns, measuring the parka to her daughter’s body, sewing each piece together and embroidering it, each coat took up to two months to make.

That’s aside from the usual two-day process of tanning the skins.

“That’s why we start using commercial tanned material. And when we home tan, we still have the smell of the animal on them and it’s not easy to get that smell off,” added Kitekudlak, who makes parkas, mitts and boots, among other items, from animal skins. “If we are going to sell to southern areas, that’s how come we tend to use commercial tanned cuts that don’t have the animal smell on it.”

Although the process of creating such pieces is strenuous and time consuming today, the work was all the more difficult back in the day, but was necessary as a means to survive.

After migrating east from Alaska around 1,000 A.D., Inuvialuit had to make use of their new surroundings, finding means for food, clothing and shelter from the land.

The animals and fish were food at first, with the skins and fur making a perfect source for tents and clothing. Most often brought back were muskrats, wolverine, polar bears and squirrels, as well as sealskin worn in the summer for its waterproof qualities. But most commonly worn was caribou because of its insulating properties. It was used for many things, including the outer layer of a parka and its sinew to sew pieces together. The fur of other animals, like wolverine, wolf and fox, were placed as trimming, as it still is today.

“Traditional clothing was so crucial for living up north, keeping warm,” said Kitekudlak. “It was for survival.”

Although Kitekudlak sewed mostly for her children, it wasn’t until she retired from Helen Kavlak School in 2011 that her seamstress abilities came to fruition.

People began commissioning her for works, ranging from parkas and kamiks to muskrat dolls, but the piece she holds closest to her heart is a drum dancing coat.

As legends and stories are an integral part of Inuvialuit culture, so is drum dancing, an act where people dance to the beat of a caribou skin drum and relay legends and stories through their movements.

The traditional drum dancing outfit is similar to what people wore in the past, including a caribou coat and boots, but each piece keeps to the colour scheme of the region and is more heavily decorated.

Layers of fringe can be seen swaying off the dancers’ coats along with flashes of embroidery or beading. Adding to the look are tufts of fur on the hem, sleeves and around the neck, with boots that often display a mastery of beading, unless kept plain. The biggest difference today is that most dancers pair the outfit with jeans.

“They have more parts to them and more designs (than other coats),” Kitekudlak explained. “Men’s ones and ladies’ coats are practically the same, but it’s different in some areas. And the fringes are made out of hide or skin and not leather. I needed help with how much fringe goes on each and to know where to sew them on.”

The project had Kitekudlak going back to an elder in the community to help her understand how certain parts were sewn together.

“I found it really challenging, but really rewarding when I was finished,” she said.

The simplicity of the coats’ colour scheme spawned inspiration for Lugt as well, who said “it’s the most simple yet bold design that is so eye catching.”

Lugt’s earrings are best recognized by the brick stitch technique she learned through a course with the Great Northern Arts Festival two years ago.

The geometric beading is paired with an array of colours Lugt carefully combines, but the solid lines of black and white beading in between is inspired by the drum dancing coats.

“They are the most beautiful parkas ever,” said Lugt.

“When they’re up there dancing, you see all those intricate designs on these parkas with the black and white. You just can’t take your eyes off of it.”

Modelling a drum dancing parka by Alice Hunter during Arctic Fashion Show was Willow Allen, who considered it her favourite garment.

“I just remember seeing it all the time when we would go to drum dancing events with my family,” said Allen. “I always thought it was so beautiful and to get to wear one myself was an honour.”

Allen is a 21-year-old model from Inuvik who, in the last two years, has posed for Levi’s, Sony and Prada, among other brands. Despite her international success, hitting the runway in Inuvik meant a lot for the Inuvialuit woman, as a way to celebrate her community, her culture and the art that springs forth from it.

“It was one of my favourite shows just because it was really meaningful to me. Because that’s my background and my culture and I don’t usually get to relate to the fashion world like that,” said Allen. “I think it sort of helps the world see how beautiful my culture is and it kind of projects it to a bigger audience and more people see it as fashion and as beautiful.”

With Lugt’s work showcased internationally, Allen representing her culture on the glossy pages of magazines and Kitekudlak keeping her neighbours warm with her intricate parkas, it’s clear Inuvialuit fashion still has a place in the world, and its impact will only strengthen as more artists come to the forefront.

SAVANNAH ELIAS-BEAULIEU

INUVIK TEEN BUILDING HER MODELLING CAREER SINCE COMPETING IN PAGEANTRY

When teenaged Savannah Elias-Beaulieu was announced as fourth princess for Miss Teen Canada Globe, she was at a loss for words, enthralled at the fact that she had made it that far.

But that was just the beginning. That November in 2017, she was then named Miss Teen Maja of the World in Honduras.

“At the beginning, I was very nervous,” said Elias- Beaulieu. “I had no previous experience before that, except watching Toddlers and Tiaras, so I was pretty new to it.”

The young woman was selected to be part of the competition in Toronto, but it meant some serious fundraising first. Through working at Northmart and selling beef jerky, along with other fundraising campaigns, Elias-Beaulieu had to raise $10,000 to compete in the big city.

“Me and my mom would go fundraise and would make a lot of beef jerky,” she said.

Being the only contestant from the Northwest Territories, and the only Canadian in the Honduras pageant, Elias-Beaulieu represented her culture through the national costume competition.

There, applicants were encouraged to don outfits showing where they come from. The Inuvik model struck a pose in clothing made entirely by relatives, including an atikluq, polar bear mukluks and matching headband, and a pair of ulu earrings.

While all of her success came rushing in within a year, Elias-Beaulieu’s decision to enter pageants came at first as an ultimatum.

“My mom said, ‘choose an activity outside of school,’ and for me it was pageantry,” she explained.

Elias-Beaulieu added that she had been interested in pageants since she was a child, but she never fully considered it until about two years ago.

She dove headfirst into the competition, where she trained for up to 18 hours a day leading up to the event, taking confidence and public speaking classes, among others.

During the event, she participated in swimsuit, evening and talent competitions. Miss Teen Canada Globe, the teenager also had the opportunity to talk about a topic close to her heart: Moyamoya disease. Her father died from the rare disease in 2013, when Elias-Beaulieu was just 10 years old.

“It’s a very rare one so I thought that at the pageant, I could raise awareness of that,” she explained.

But that isn’t the only cause Elias-Beaulieu is passionate about.

She is now a peer facilitator with the non-profit group FOXY (Fostering Open eXpression among Youth), which helps empower young women and gender-diverse youth through the arts and traditional knowledge.

As for modelling, Elias-Beaulieu said she hopes to continue competing in bigger pageants in the future. Modelling in Inuvik’s Arctic Fashion Show was an opportunity for her to once again celebrate where she comes from.

“I am proud to be Indigenous,” she said. “You can never showcase traditional clothing enough.”

WILLOW ALLEN

PRADA MODEL FINDS BALANCE BETWEEN WORLDS

Answering her phone from Toronto, 21-year-old Willow Allen spoke about her life and career while on set for a photoshoot with insurance company Manulife; it’s a big brand, but small potatoes compared to projects she’s done in the past.

“I’ve done a lot of cool things in Asia,” Allen said over the phone. “I did Levi’s and New Balance, but they were only campaigns in those other countries. Right now I’m shooting for Shoppers. This is the coolest to me just because it’s in Canada and that’s who’s going to see it.”

Allen hails from Inuvik but was scouted by a southern modelling agency in 2016 after an agent spotted her photos on Instagram.

While the young woman at first turned the potential contract down, she began reconsidering the career choice a year later, while studying at MacEwan University in Edmonton.

“I never really thought about it until people started telling me to do it,” she said. “I didn’t think there were jobs like this that I could do, or that there would be any real money out of it.”

While still enrolled in university full-time, Allen signed on for a three-year contract with Mode Models. The company sent her to live in Singapore for three months, where she modelled for brands like Highsnobiety and even Prada.

But it hasn’t all been a luxurious adventure for the model. After overcoming the culture shock in Asia and returning to Canada, the balance between modelling and university was trying.

“It’s definitely been really hard because when I was a full-time student in the first semester of school and was also modelling, there was a lot of pressure,” she explained. “I would have a class I couldn’t skip (for a photoshoot) and would have to tell my agency. And they’d say, ‘You have to, this is big for you.’ I would have to figure out a way to make it work.”

This time around, Allen is opting for online classes while living in Inuvik and travelling for modelling gigs when she needs to. She is going to continue studying social work as she has always been passionate about giving back to her community, she said.

“My family went to residential school, so I’ve seen all these things happen because of that,” Allen explained. “I feel like I can relate to the people I will be helping. I think that it’s really important to have people in that role who understand.”

Allen added she has about three years left of university and is determined to do what she dreams of: working for Child and Family Services in Inuvik.

Until then, she’ll continue modelling, adding, “I just want to keep as balanced as I can.”

ASHLEY ELIAS

MODEL REPRESENTS THE NORTH IN THE SOUTH

When Ashley Elias walked down the Indigenous Fashion Week runway in 2018, the mother of two walked with pride, having represented the North in Australia.

“I felt honoured to represent my Inuit culture,” she said. “Not a lot of Inuit or Indigenous people have this opportunity. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me – I felt proud.”

While the fashion show mainly featured Indigenous models from Australia and New Zealand, Elias was one of two Canadian models and the only one from the North.

Despite the models’ different origins, Elias said the women all shared one commonality.

“We were all Indigenous, so we all share that one thing,” she said. “All the models were really supportive. We all got along.”

Elias had landed the opportunity to model in Australia after applying to an ad through Facebook seeking Indigenous women from around the globe.

She was chosen two weeks later and then flown to Melbourne for the show, with hours a day of training leading up to the event.

“The training was really intense,” she explained. “You train from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and you’re in heels all day.”

But it was well worth it for Elias, who wasn’t just modelling internationally for the first time; it was also her first experience on a professional runway.

Before that show in March 2018, Elias had trained to be a model as a teenager but hadn’t yet practised the craft.

She attended modelling classes at the age of 14 in Edmonton after seeing an ad for lessons in the Edmonton Sun newspaper.

It was a weekly class, where the teenager was taught how to pose for a camera and how to walk a runway, while instructors worked on boosting young women’s confidence.

“It kept me out of trouble growing up in my teens,” she said. “I looked forward to every Saturday.”

Since then, Elias has been consistently searching for modelling opportunities online, doing photoshoots to build her portfolio and taking on gigs in both the NWT and Nunavut.

In the past year alone, Elias travelled to Iqaluit to showcase designs for Victoria’s Arctic Fashion and modelled several outfits for Inuvik’s Arctic Fashion Show as part of the Great Northern Arts Festival.

All the while her two children, ages five and eight, have been rooting for her.

“They think it’s pretty cool,” said Elias. “‘My mommy is on the runway. My mommy, the model,’ – that’s what they say. It’s flattering.”

As both mother and employee working in housing services, Elias said modelling is more of a hobby for the moment. But she said she has the drive to keep going and will continue to seek out opportunities.

“I know it’s really competitive, but I believe I’ve got what it takes and I have the confidence,” she added.

Like her relative, Savannah Elias-Beaulieu, Elias will likely be seen on more of the world’s runways in the future.