In Vancouver, Canada, First Nations designers and models walked the runway to celebrate their style — ranging from coastal northwest tribal patterns to urban streetwear. At the helm is Joleen Mitton, who founded Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week and Supernaturals Modelling — an agency of all-Indigenous models. Mitton is Cree from the Sawridge First Nation and has spent years bringing Native representation to the fashion industry.
The most recent edition of Indigenous Fashion Week took place in late November, and Mitton and her team were all hands on deck backstage. Each night, in the hours before showtime, was a flurry of activity. Designers and models rehearsed their runway walks, and make-up artists worked their magic behind the scenes.
In a big room full of mirrors and bright lights, rows of hair stylists created intricate braids on Indigenous models with long hair. Down the hallway in the dressing rooms, designers combed through racks of outfits, fitting models into one-of-a-kind dresses and ornate beaded earrings.
In designer Lesley Hampton’s dressing room, Mitton tried on a sheer floor-length, champagne-colored gown of tulle fabric, adorned with sequins and white feathers. Hampton, an Indigenous designer with an Anishinaabe background from Toronto, has created looks for major events, including the Emmy Awards.
When Mitton walked on stage, the crowd burst into applause. But success did not come easily. Despite experiencing personal loss of loved ones, health issues and financial struggles, Mitton has organized Indigenous Fashion Week four times since 2017. Now 40 years old, Mitton originally got her start modeling at the age of 15, when she was discovered by a talent scout in her hometown of Vancouver.
“I was in line for a free smoothie at the local fair,” she said. “There was a scout somewhere in the marketplace who tapped me on my shoulder and asked if they could take a photo of me.”
Mitton attended a conference for prospective models and received dozens of callbacks from agents around the world. She said her Indigenous features gave her a look that made her popular in the Asian market.
“My first job was to go to Taipei in Taiwan, and that’s kind of the start of my career. I got into a lot of glamor and beauty [and] commercial work, which was really, really exciting for me,” she said. “I was just living a really different kind of lifestyle that I was used to. It was definitely an eye-opener to a different life that I would have never thought to even dream of.”
Mitton modeled for major brands across Asia for eight years, but eventually decided to leave it all behind and return home to Vancouver.
“I was just tired of being told I was too thin, or too big or not pale enough. That can really make you question your identity and who you are. And I was definitely feeling that at that age,” she explained. “So, I decided to come back, and I started working within my community, working with Indigenous families and with Indigenous foster kids. That’s where I kind of found my purpose again.”
Mitton took on a mix of jobs and volunteer work to help Indigenous families. She mentored Indigenous youth through programs in Vancouver’s inner city, started an all-Native basketball team, and taught young people about their culture. Mitton became like an elder sister or aunty figure for young Indigenous women who grew up in foster care and created a close-knit family environment for them. One day, she put on an Indigenous fashion show, and many of her mentees asked to join.
Mitton said, “Because you get to wear clothing that represents who you are, I think that really drives home their sense of self and sense of their identities.”
Some of the young people Mitton mentored years ago now proudly walk the runway in vibrant Indigenous fashions. Alicia Hanton, a model of Cree ancestry, was separated from her mother when she was 9 years old and put in foster care.
“I met Joleen in 2015 because I was in [foster] care at the time,” Hanton said. “I just kind of came into her arms, and she took me under her wing and put me in one of my first shows.”
Now, she’s part of Mitton’s Supernaturals modeling agency.
Hanton said, “It’s definitely brought my confidence up, times a million because I grew up a very shy, very timid person, but I also didn’t grow up with much community or culture. It just really opened my eyes to Indigenous fashion.”
Through this Fashion Week, First Nations people are reclaiming their culture by showcasing their own designs. The event opened with Red Dress Night, honoring murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls, Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ people in Canada and across the world.
From 2015 to 2020, Indigenous people in Canada were victims of homicide six times more than non-Indigenous people. Canada’s national inquiry into the high number of Indigenous women who have gone missing or been killed described it as a “genocide.”
Native designers created red designs to draw attention to this devastating epidemic. “Being able to showcase it in a way that honors but is also respectful and powerful, that’s really important,” Mitton said.
Also, for more than 60 years, Canada banned Indigenous people from wearing their traditional regalia at cultural and spiritual ceremonies, as well as gathering for pow-wows or potlatches — common ceremonial practices for First Nations tribes along the Canadian northwest. Mitton says the government did this to take away their power.
“But you can’t kill our spirits,” she said. “You can see it in our clothes; you can see it in our songs now that we’re awake and we’re alive, and we’re not going anywhere.”
People in the fashion industry are starting to take notice, and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week influenced the Indigenous Fashion Week in Toronto, Canada. The models from Mitton’s Supernaturals agency have also walked runways in New York and Santa Fe.
Joanna Fox, the editor-in-chief of Elle Magazine’s Canada edition, said, “There’s a lot of younger, more up-and-coming, less well-known designers that you get to see at Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week. We’re just going to start to see Indigenous designers more and more on red carpets.”
Fox says Indigenous designers are adding something new to the fashion world. “The clothing is beautiful. It’s well-made. It’s more consciously-made in the sense that it’s more sustainable,” she said.
Maynard Johnny Jr., an Indigenous artist and cultural advisor for fashion week, said he’s inspired by what Mitton has been able to accomplish.
“She is a mountain mover. She always has visions and she’s dedicated to make those come true,” he said. “A matriarch is someone who works for the people, who keeps the culture alive. In my opinion, she’s well on her way to being a matriarch.”
During the show, Mitton stood by the models’ sides as they lined up behind the runway, cheering them on and smiling. Alicia Hanton said being part of this event has been very healing for her.
“Once we’re backstage, and we’re all [in our] hair and makeup, and we’ve got the outfit, I just feel so ready to put on the show for the designers, for the crowd, for Joleen, for the people we’ve lost. I just become the best version of myself,” Hanton said.
As she walked down the long runway in the packed theater, wearing designer Yolonda Skelton’s red dress with a gold-sequinned, patterned cape, the crowd cheered as Hanton lifted her arms up and held her head up high.
“It’s a West Coast ‘thank you.’” she said. “We do that to show how thankful we are that you were here to witness what we want to showcase.”