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An Inuvialuk designer says her time on Project Runway Canada was a “career highlight” and an opportunity to showcase some of her culture.
Taalrumiq, an Inuvialuk and Gwich’in designer from Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. now living in Vancouver, fell to a double elimination in a team challenge on the third episode, airing last Friday.
“It’s so much more than just me as a designer,” she said.
“This is going to have impact for my nation, the Inuvialuit and the Gwich’in, my community and beyond.”
The rebooted Canadian adaptation of the popular fashion competition show premiered mid-November on Crave. Designers compete for $100,000 and a feature in Elle Canada magazine.
The judges include Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha, fashion journalist Jeanne Beker and fashion designer Spencer Badu.
Outside the show she continues to create Inuvialuit-inspired designs under her label, Taalrumiq. Sewing, she said, is just a way of life in her culture, a necessity for survival in Arctic weather and a skill passed down through generations.
She learned to sew as a child, surrounded by her mother’s work and surrounded by cousins in her late grandmother’s sewing room after she died.
“In my designs, there’s always that cultural flair and influence because that’s my way of being,” she said.
That influence was clear in her debut look in Episode 1, where designers were challenged to create a denim look entirely from old jeans.
Her look included red detailing, inspired by ptarmigan plumage, and a hood inspired by those worn by Inuvialuit elders.
“I learned to do that hood by studying my great-anaanak’s [great-grandmother’s] garments,” said Taalrumiq.
“That was a design that I saw all of our elders wearing when I was a little girl in Tuktoyaktuk.”
Taalrumiq isn’t the only Indigenous designer chosen to compete this season. Anishinaabe designer Little Feather Migwans, from M’chigeeng First Nation and Wiikwemikong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island is also on the show.
“I [used to] watch these shows and I’m like, ‘where are we?’ And not as a caricature, but, you know, as our real authentic selves,” she said.
“I think it’s so wonderful that we’re here in these contemporary spaces doing the thing and just living the dream.”
Taalrumiq said she knew Migwans prior to filming.
“When we got there, the first day of meeting all the designers, we were jumping up and down and hugging,” said Taalrumiq.
“It’s really nice to have someone there who just knows, without you having to explain.”
Now back from the show, Taalrumiq will be finishing up her master of fine arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where her research is focused on ancestral Inuvialuit fashion.
Although her run on Project Runway Canada has ended, she said she’s grateful for the journey and will be cheering on Migwans.
