Sage Paul

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.

Early life and education Sage Paul was born in Toronto, where she and her siblings grew up. Sage's mother is a fourth-generation Canadian settler of Hungarian and British ancestry. Her father, Simon Paul, is Dene from English River First Nation and a former student of the Beauval Indian Residential School. Paul is a descendent of the 1906 Treaty 10 signing between English River First Nation and the government of Canada.

In 2004, Paul interned at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. She continued to work for the festival in events and marketing until 2013.

In 2006, Paul earned a diploma in Fashion Techniques and Design from George Brown College.

Career Paul's work in the fashion industry includes and creating platforms for Indigenous designers and artists. In 2011, she self-presented her first collection entitled "End of Summer" 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.

In 2014, Paul co-founded Setsuné Indigenous Fashion Incubator. Setsuné means "My grandmother" in the Dene language. She and her collaborators created programming to sustain traditional Indigenous practices in fashion like hide tanning, beading, quilling, and sewing. 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."

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. IFWTO was met with great acclaim from audiences, media and Indigenous communities, including a special reception hosted by the Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell at Queens Park to mark the occasion.

In November 2020, IFWTO was registered as a nonprofit organization called Indigenous Fashion Arts (IFA). 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. 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.

Works and credits

Programming and curatorial work 2022, Curator & Director, Horeh’ti Yeh Kuh, Nuit Blanche, Toronto 2021, Co-Curator, A Thread That Never Breaks, AbTeC Gallery, IFWTO, Second Life 2020, Programmer, IFWTO x Simon’s Edito Collaborative Capsule Collection, Toronto 2016, Co-Curator, Indian Giver: Truth Telling & Narratives of Representation, Gallery 1818, Toronto

Solo shows and exhibitions 2019, Rations, Urbani_T Public Playground for Urban Culture and Creativity, Toronto 2018, Giving Life, Festival Mode & Design, Montreal 2012, Synaptic City, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto 2012, Synaptic City, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto (self-presented) 2011, End of Summer, Oz Studios, Toronto (self-presented)

Group shows and exhibitions 2020, Contemporary Native Art Biennial, BACA, Montreal 2019, The View From Here, Artport Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto 2019, Fast Fashion, First Thursdays, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto 2018, The Future, The Walrus Live, Toronto 2018, Hot Culture: Indigenous Fashion, Materials & Crafts, Gallery 101, Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival, Ottawa 2018, Giving Life, Otahpiaaki Fashion Week, Calgary 2017, Indigenous Fashion & Wearable Art, Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective, Western Canada Fashion Week, Edmonton 2017, Sculpting Reads, Word on The Street Toronto Book & Magazine Festival, Toronto 2017, Crafted Strangers, The Centre for Craft, Creativity & Design, North Carolina 2016, Indian Giver: Truth Telling and Narratives of Representation, Gallery 1313, Toronto 2016, The Mending Lounge, Craft Ontario Storefront Gallery, Toronto 2014, FashioNative, Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford 2013, Indigenous NOW, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 2009, (Re)Representation, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Commissions 2017, LabSpace Studio, Toronto, Sculpting New Reads, “7 Fallen Feathers” 2016, Setsuné Indigenous Fashion Incubator, Toronto, Indian Giver, “Redress (Re-Dress)”

Costume design 2023, Video Cabaret and Crows Theatre, A Terrible Fate, Director Karin Randoja, theatre 2022, Nice Picture Inc., Devonshire Productions Inc., Baswewe Films, A Stellar Film Inc, Stellar, feature film 2022, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Svāhā, director and creator Nova Bhattacharya, dance 2019, Sienna Films, Trickster (Costume Consultation), director Michelle Latimer, TV series 2019, Sonar Pictures, Utopia Falls (Petra character), director Randall Thorne, TV series 2019, George Brown College, Munsch Planet, director Esther Jun, theatre 2019, National Arts Centre, Unnatural & Accidental Women, director Muriel Miguel, theatre 2019, National Film Board of Canada, Woman Dress, director Thirza Cuthand, short film 2019, Valeo Management/Jeremy Dutcher, Mehcinut, director Chandler Levack, music video 2019, Video Cabaret, Too Good To Be True, director Cliff Cardinal, theatre 2019, Independent, Omaagaaman, creator Waawaate Fobister, dance 2018, Film Farm, Falls Around Her, director Darlene Naponse, feature film 2018, Tarragon Theatre, Cottagers and Indians, director Patti Shaughnassy, theatre 2017, Theatre Kingston, Almighty Voice and His Wife, director Lib Spry, theatre 2017, Young Peoples Theatre, Munschtime!, director Herbie Barnes, theatre 2006, Kent Monkman, Robin’s Hood (Miss Eagle Testickle character), short film 2005, Independent, Divided by Zero, director Danis Goulet, short film

Awards and honours In 2022, Paul was awarded the Changemaker Award at the Canadian Art & Fashion Awards. In 2018, Paul was awarded the Top 25 Woman of Influence award.