Indigenous Haute Couture – Creation & Embellishments 2025

D’Arcy Moses is an Indigenous Dene originally from the Pehdzeh Ki First Nation; a small community located in the Mackenzie mountains beside the Mackenzie River - in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
His name has been synonymous with Indigenous fashion for several decades throughout Canada though the use of womens’ couture fashion techniques, extensive work with leather, traditional hides and fur and more recently, applying the use of digital technology to his work.  
D’Arcy’s work has appeared over the years in both national and international television and print media sold at retailers like Holt Renfrew in Canada, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus in the United States.  He has been the recipient of several awards in the garment business including but not limited to the Wool Bureau of Canada award, the Dubbonet Design award and Canada’s Gold Thimble award – the Griffe D’or.  More recently he received the Queen’s Jubilee Award for his contribution to Canada’s Fashion and the Arts.
Throughout his career in the garment business D’Arcy has hosted numerous design, accessory / garment construction workshops across Canada and the NWT working with Indigenous youth and elders.  These workshops focused primarily on traditional indigenous design, construction and garment finishing techniques mixed with a contemporary fashion ideology.   

Janine Windolph (Atikamekw/Woodland Cree) is a Saskatchewan-based filmmaker, video editor, educator, fine-craft artist, and storyteller. She is the Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Prior, Janine was the Curator of Community Engagement at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. She has her Master of Fine Arts: Interdisciplinary in Indigenous Fine Art and Media Production.

Janine was a co-producer for RIIS Media Project Inc wherein she co-directed RIIS from Amnesia: Recovering the Lost Legacies (feature-length documentary) that features the history of the Regina Indian Industrial School (RIIS). 

Janine’s filmography includes roles as producer, director, narrator, writer and/or editor.  She directed Stories Are In Our Bones, Lifegivers: Honoring Our Elders and Children, The Land of Rock and Gold, Ayapiyâhk ôma niyanân “Only us, we are here at home,”

Janine is working with Buffalo Mountain Banff; a community group to Buffalo Mountain, and providing production support to the Buffalo Mountain Video Project that is part of her sons’ homeschooling.

Lucy Yakeleya was born and raised into the traditional ways in Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories, as well as Colville Lake, NT.  She spent several years in Residential School in Inuvik, NT. Lucy now lives and works in Yellowknife, NT. The distinct shapes, colours, patterns and small beads used in Lucy’s artwork reflect the influences she picked up from her family and from the Sahtu region. This is a family practice, as most of Lucy’s siblings are also involved in the arts in the Sahtu to this day. On her journey as an artist, Lucy sold her artwork to make extra income, which then gradually turned into a fulfilling hobby. While Lucy sells her art, she mainly loves to create pieces for herself and for her family. Through the years, Lucy has shared her skills with students in schools and has passed on the tradition of hide tanning at the Dene Nahjo camp. In 2019, Lucy shared her knowledge and skills as a faculty for Urban Moose Hide Tanning at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

My name is Tishna Marlowe, I was raised in a traditional family with traditional elders in an isolated community north of sixty. A one-hour plane ride from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

I come from a place called Lutselke, ‘Place of Small Fish’; we resided on the east arm of the great slave lake in the Northwest Territories, on the caribou migration route.  My people, ‘Ethen Dene’ people of the caribou have resided here since time immoral, generation upon generations. We are Chipewyan, keepers of the caribou on ‘Land of the Ancestors’.  

This community is what inspires me; the way of life of the people; the country and most of all my family.  I feel traditional fashion is such a vital component to all cultures.  With traditional knowledge, and arts being lost at a rapid pace, I feel relearning these arts is so very vital for all nations across this globe.  

My passion for fashion and being from 2 world is what lead me to going back to school at 42 years old with children.  I graduated from Olds College in Calgary with a Diploma in Costume Design and Fashion Design 2 years later.  This education has allotted me to work on many diverse projects and opportunities.  The projects I enjoy the most is teaching and passing on my skills.

The ‘passing on’ of knowledge is about human connections and interactions.  It is about each ‘generations legacy” no matter the family or race on this Earth.  I connect my art to my culture and family. The mediums I use in the garments is the message, “the medium is the message”.  For example, I use fish scales in leu of sequence.  Those fish scales were harvest from one of my family’s fish harvest’s.  The medium represents my connection to family, community, and land.
Recently I was the Head Costume Designer for a new series called ‘Tales from the Rez”, a 6 episodes series.  Being on this set and creating costumes for this series is extremely important to our indigenous community as, these stories, written, produced, and designed by indigenous people, is so important as some of us are relearning our Culture and Ways of life.

I was also a recipient of the last Banff 2021 – Indigenous Haute Couture Residency, with has impacted by life both professionally and artistically.  I am very passionate about this Program as our Indigenous Fashions and Culture are awaking the world and we are finally able to share our beautiful Fashions and Culture with the world.   Banff has given us designers the space and equipment and help each designer to push their design limits.   Banff also gives you a sense of belong and that your art is significant and meaningful.

Fashion is my Platform and I use it to promote my culture through one of a kind piece’s.  The garments tell a sorry of an artist caught between 2 worlds; who is trying to bridge the gap between the ‘Old and the Young’; where Murdered and Missing Indigenous Woman is an epidemic; in the mist of an ‘Indigenous Renaissance’.  I believe it takes a village to grow ‘Culture’.
 

Suzan Marie is a Decesuline/Cree woman born and raised in the Northwest Territories. As a residential school survivor, Suzan has experienced firsthand the loss of culture and language that deeply impacted her life. In response, she is reclaiming her culture through being from a long line of traditional artisans. A traditional teacher keeping ancient Dene skills alive for over thirty years, Suzan co-authored two books, Whadoo tehmi / Long-ago people’s packsack Dene babiche bags: tradition and revival and Dene spruce root basketry / Dene ts’ukegáí tene rahesi: revival of a tradition, also referred to as the Dene suitcase and Dene pots and pans.

Suzan has taught across Canada and the US to all ages through what she calls reconciliation healing. She works with moose hair, porcupine quills, moose and caribou hooves, dentalium shell, angler, spruce-root, babiche bags, bone, beads, and embroidery using contemporary and traditional techniques. She sews earrings, caribou and moosehide mitts, and various styles of moccasins. In 2002, Suzan was the first recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal for her commitment to keeping culture alive. A harvester of traditional materials and medicines, Suzan lives and breathes her culture. Suzan is also a mom and Setsune to her grandson Carver.