Sage Paul is a Denesuliné and Canadian fashion designer who uses fashion design to promote Indigenous cultures. She co-founded and serves as executive and artistic Director of the nonprofit organization Indigenous Fashion Arts.[1][2][3]
Early life and education
Sage Paul was born in Toronto, where she and her siblings grew up.[4] Sage's mother is a fourth-generation Canadian settler of Hungarian and British ancestry. Her father, Simon Paul,[5] is Dene from English River First Nation and a survivor of the Beauval Indian Residential School.[6][7] Paul is a descendent of the 1906 Treaty 10 signing between English River First Nation and the government of Canada.[8]
Paul's work in the fashion industry includes and creating platforms for Indigenous designers and artists.[11][12] In 2011, she self-presented her first collection entitled "End of Summer"[13] and the following year she began experimenting with multi-disciplinary, conceptual and collaborative approaches in fashion performance, bringing together Indigenous artists in fashion, craft, dance, and music, to present her collection "Synaptic City." That collection subsequently exhibited at Harbourfront Centre's 2012 Planet IndigenUs festival.[14]
In 2014, Paul co-founded Setsuné Indigenous Fashion Incubator. Setsuné means "My grandmother" in the Dene language.[15] She and her collaborators created programming to sustain traditional Indigenous practices in fashion like hide tanning, beading, quilling, and sewing.[16][17] In 2016, the Incubator partnered with Ikea Canada to design and produce the collection ÅTERSTÄLLA, which means to restore, heal, or redecorate, and it was made entirely from salvaged Ikea textiles, reflecting the traditional Indigenous value to "use everything."[18]
Later in 2016, Paul began to conceive an Indigenous fashion week. By spring 2018, she and her co-founders, Kerry Swanson and Heather Haynes, formed an artist collective and launched Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto (IFWTO) at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.[19][20] IFWTO was met with great acclaim from audiences, media and Indigenous communities,[21][22] including a special reception hosted by the Liutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell at Queens Park to mark the occasion.[23]
In November 2020, IFWTO was registered as a nonprofit organization called Indigenous Fashion Arts (IFA).[24] Paul was appointed to lead the organization as Executive & Artistic Director, where she continues to explore inter-disciplinary practices in fashion at the intersection of mainstream fashion, Indigenous art and traditional practices.[25][26][27] IFA serves as a platform for Indigenous fashion designers and artists to showcase their work, share their stories, and promote Indigenous cultural expressions and traditional knowledge through fashion.[28][29]