Akwesasne gets runway ready 

The annual Akwesasne Fashion Show is set to be an event to remember this year, with tickets selling out within just three days.

“I’m really excited for my family to actually see my work in a show, that’s the most exciting part for me,” said Kahnawa’kehró:non Thea Thomas, who will be attending the show as a designer for the first time ever.

“I’ve been building a collection for the past few months, and it’s just the perfect moment.”

Thomas’s work is inspired by streetwear, and features a lot of denim, as well as lots of fur, in fitting with the show’s theme this year – “Winter Wonderland.”

She’ll be showing eight pieces at the show, which is taking place on December 7 at the Tsi Snaihne Recreation Centre, and she is working with eight models, including fellow Kahnawa’kehró:non Kendall Horn and Konwaséti Mariah Kirby.

“I’m looking forward to being around familiar faces and people, people that I’ve grown up with,” Thomas said.

Horn is a seasoned model, having walked the runway for around nine years. She said she has a particular fondness for the Akwesasne Fashion Show, because it’s not always that she gets to be around so many fellow Indigenous people in the fashion world.

“It’s always amazing seeing our people being able to showcase their skills and their beauty at events like this. Every year, there’s great energy and good medicine being in such atmosphere,” she said. “These shows are allowing our people to get their foot into the fashion industry and really prosper and shine in these spaces.”

Kirby used to model more frequently as a child, but gave it up in her teenage years. She said events like the Akwesasne Fashion Show reignited her passion for modelling and the fashion industry.

“I feel so empowered and confident after a show,” she said.

“Once I saw Onkwehón:we models receiving more representation in the modelling industry, I became interested again.”

Kirby’s family will be attending to support her in the show.

“I’m excited to showcase my designer’s amazing and hard work on the runway. I look forward to seeing my family in the crowd cheering me on, especially my daughter,” she said.

The event has grown in size since it was first dreamed up by four passionate women in Akwesasne back in 2006, said one of the founding members of the organizing committee, Tisha Thompson.

“Now we’re inspiring other nations to do fashion shows. All across Indian Country we have models, we have designers applying,” she said.

Committee members have been preparing for the past few months, pulling together a theme, coordinating designers, and arranging the order of the runway – this year, they’ll have a “debuts” category for new designers, as well as a category for designers who have been showing their work for more than 20 years.

“We want to have a type of show for our community that makes people feel like they’re going out for a night at the New York Fashion Week,” Thompson said.

The show has been an important launch pad for many young designers.

“We get to help people display their beadwork, their designs, their hair, their makeup, and we give people opportunities and a platform to show the community what they can do,” Thompson said.

Fellow organizer Lauren Mitchell said that it’s amazing to see the community and other Indigenous people from across Turtle Island come together for the event.

“We’ve really grown from selling tickets just out of our own salons, and now we have a whole website and can put it all online,” she said, adding that growing the collaboration behind the scenes has been a fulfilling part of the project’s growth throughout the years.

“Everybody does their part now and it’s not just all on our shoulders.”

Mitchell said that even the organizers have had the chance to explore their own creativity through the show.

“I do hair, I plan it, but I’ve also walked in the shows a couple of times, and it’s a very exciting rush,” she said.

“My favourite part is that energy.”

Thompson said that she and her fellow organizers are proud to see Indigenous designers celebrated at the show.

“It’s important that people realize that we don’t just do this for ourselves. We do it for our people,” she said. “It creates more opportunities and exposure for us. We’re in spaces now that we’ve never been before.”

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