Melrene Saloy’s love of fashion began as a child, making clothes for her dolls after her grandmother and aunts taught her to sew.
Today, Saloy runs her own business, Native Diva Creations, which makes culturally appropriate First Nations jewelry and accessories. In September, she will take a collection of her beaded jewelry and accessories to Paris Fashion Week.
“Everyone who works with me there is indigenous. So the hair, the makeup, the models, the photographers, they’re all indigenous,” she said.
Saloy, a Blackfoot designer from the Kainai Nation, started her business almost eight years ago.
After going on maternity leave, she decided she didn’t want to go back to work in retail management. So she founded Native Diva Creations and never looked back.
Saloy did her first fashion show in 2015 in Santa Fe, NM, and last year, models wore her designs on the runway during New York Fashion Week (NYFW).
“I was literally crying the whole time,” Saloy said of her NYFW experience.
“It was really hard for me to sit there because it was like, ‘Look at my culture.’ Look at all this happening.”
Saloy is one of several indigenous fashion designers who showcase their work on national and international runways. She was recruited to bring her designs to Paris through the non-profit International Indigenous Fashion Week Inc. (IIFW).
The organization helps Indigenous designers make their way into the mainstream fashion industry and connect with each other.
Finally in the spotlight
Chelsa Racette, founder and executive director of IIFW, said she started the organization so that indigenous designers could be in the spotlight and not be overlooked at fashion shows.
“I was working numerous fashion shows in the United States and Canada, and they would only feature one or two indigenous designers. So I realized we need our own,” she said.
Since its inception in 2012, IIFW has taken indigenous designers to fashion shows across the country and the globe, including in New York, Paris and London.
Racette, who is Cree from Nekaneet First Nation in Saskatchewan, said one of her main goals with IIFW is to bring Indigenous designers into mainstream fashion circles and network with other designers around the world.
“There’s been indigenous designers around for a long time, and I think people are just catching on now,” she said.
We’re more than just beads and feathers… We’re not just what you see in a gift shop. We are so much more.– Melrene Saloy, Blackfoot fashion designer
Saloy agrees. She said many non-Indigenous designers throughout history have appropriated Indigenous designs without permission. Now, it’s time for indigenous designers to be recognized for their work.
“We finally have a sweet spot where there are enough artists where we can say, ‘Hey, look, here we are. We’re here to stay. We’ve been here for a long time. We’ve got a lot to show, ” she said.
“We’re more than just beads and feathers. We’re not just powwow. We’re not just what you see in a gift shop. We’re much, much more.”
‘Healing through threads’
Livia Manywounds, a member of the Tsuut’ina Nation, brought her fashion dresses to the Toronto Indigenous Fashion Arts Festival in June. The experience was one to remember.
“It was one of those moments where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m really here with all these top and indigenous designers. How did I get here, right?” she said.
“Then I think back to my story, I say, ‘Wow, I really put in the hours. It was not easy to be one person to create all these beautiful clothes.”
Manywounds said she thinks of her journey in fashion design as “healing through thread.” Her father passed away in 2016 and on the same day her mother was diagnosed with cancer.
While sitting at her mother’s bedside, Manywounds turned to beads. After her mother died, she continued her art as a form of healing.
Manywounds said her work began to gain popularity online through social media and she began receiving many orders. She credits those who supported and bought her early designs for helping her get to where she is today.
Indigenous designers showing their designs on the runway is important for historical reasons, Manywounds said, especially since the residential school system tried to rob Indigenous communities of their cultures, languages, traditions and beliefs.
“It’s not a costume. It’s something more special than that because it has meaning behind it. It has purpose. It has a story.”
Manywounds said there are now many influential indigenous designers making their way into the mainstream and bringing their designs to red carpets. She hopes that one day the same will happen for her work and that more opportunities will open up for indigenous designers, models and artists.
As for Saloy, she hopes that attending Paris Fashion Week will help make her name known to international buyers, but also start a wider conversation about indigenous designers.
“I want to open those doors for other artists to get there, for them to see more indigenous people.”
