Fashion, Culture, and Commerce: Indigenous Leaders Redefine the Runway

When I took on this assignment and suddenly found myself interviewing Sage Paul, Joleen Mitton, and Melrene Saloy-EagleSpeaker for this feature, I felt like I was sitting front row at the most powerful runway show of my life. This article was more than fashion—it was about reclamation. It was about making visibility sacred.

Each of these women leads in a different lane of Indigenous fashion. But all of them are building new models, literally and figuratively, for what success looks like. From the sewing room to the international stage, they’re teaching us that fashion isn’t frivolous. It’s memory. It’s movement. It’s a living map of who we are and where we’ve been.

In a time where "sustainability" is often just a checkbox on a corporate slide deck, Indigenous fashion offers something more with continuity. With culture. With care.

This blog post spotlights an article published in Indigenous Business Report (Fall 2024) that honours the work of three Indigenous women carving out space for resurgence and representation through fashion entrepreneurship.

Featured Quote

“There’s a hunger for stories that go deeper than surface-level trends. People want to connect with something real, and Indigenous fashion offers that authenticity.”
— Joleen Mitton

Read the Full Article
Indigenous Business Report – Spring 2025, pg. 28
View full issue online
Download the full article as a PDF

💡 OCInsight:

Fashion can be a form of economic sovereignty. When Indigenous women lead in design, production, and storytelling, they're not just reclaiming aesthetics, they’re reclaiming the entire industry. These runways aren’t just about looks. They’re about legacy.

Want to go deeper this Earth Day?

Indigenous knowledge offers so much more than environmental awareness, it offers relational accountability, cultural continuity, and a return to sustainability rooted in community care.

I’ve curated a list of powerful reads from Indigenous authors and land protectors that challenge, inspire, and reconnect us to what really matters (the land, the stories, and each other).

Explore the book list here:
Earth Day Reads: Indigenous Wisdom on Land, Culture & Sustainability
(When you purchase through this link, you support local bookstores and help sustain the work we do at OCI.)

About Bryan Hansen

Bryan Hansen is a Métis educator, speaker, and writer. He’s the founder of OCI, where he helps organizations move beyond land acknowledgments into meaningful, Nation-based reconciliation. His work appears in She Is Wise, Forward Magazine, Indigenous Business Report, and through partnerships with the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business (CCIB).

As a proud Two-Spirit person, Bryan brings a lens shaped by lived experience, cultural knowledge, and deep relational accountability. His work blends humour, truth-telling, and clarity, inviting audiences to go beyond optics and into transformation.

Curious about working together or inviting Bryan to speak?
Let’s chat.