Wild Yukon Furs is a collection of handmade jewellery pieces created with furs trapped on Indigenous traplines.ERIK PINKERTON
Globalization has made it easy to instantly acquire any mass-produced luxury item. A side effect of this easy access, however, is homogenization of style: Suddenly, everyone finds themselves sporting the same coveted bags, shoes and jewellery.
So, what’s come to distinguish true luxury from the clutter are pieces made by hand, that boldly showcase the time and intention that went into making them.
This sort of luxury is no longer found in the couture houses of Paris alone – modern handicraft-driven brands and makers are rising in popularity, finally giving these traditions the value they’re due.
Have a look at the fall 2022 collections, for example. You’d be forgiven for thinking that fashion designers had made a pit stop at their local craft supply store on their way to the runways.
Known for their handmade touch, Eckhaus Latta presented chain-mail pieces handmade over months in its atelier as well as hand-darned jeans and tops.
For his debut collection at Bottega Veneta, creative director Matthieu Blazy found inspiration in the house’s origins as a handbag company, reinterpreting its signature intrecciato-style weave into apparel.
And then there is buzzy men’s wear line Bode, which works exclusively in rare vintage fabrics including tablecloths, grain sacks and quilts that are stitched together into one-of-a-kind garments.
It’s all part of the growing appreciation for items that are made slowly and by hand, a movement that’s elevating the status of traditional crafts to one of luxury goods.
Sisters Delaney and Montana Prysnuk make jewellery line Copper Caribou using caribou antler, home tan hide, porcupine quills and copper.Courtesy Copper Caribou
Closer to home, Canadian designers, artists and makers are exploring traditional ways of creation by hand, particularly in the Yukon where local creatives are reconnecting with Indigenous traditions, honouring them and reimagining them for today’s world.
Take Copper Caribou, a small Yukon business run by sisters Delaney and Montana Prysnuk. Of Vuntut Gwich’in, Ukrainian and Scandinavian heritage, the pair began beading about 10 years ago, making jewellery that incorporates caribou antler, home tan hide, porcupine quills and copper. They’ve recently begun tanning caribou and moose hides, a huge undertaking that allows them to deepen their process while working in the same method as their ancestors.
”The traditional ways of learning and knowing were disrupted over the years, so part of this business journey that we’re on is to reclaim, relearn and honour some of this lost knowledge that goes back in our family,” Delaney says.
“This is a way of life for us, that’s how we were raised. Making things from scratch is also highly embedded in our upbringing,” Montana adds.
Creating in a way that’s authentic to their Gwich’in culture, the sisters’ designs have become known for what friends describe as traditional work with a contemporary vibe.
“Within the realm of styles and people’s personal creativity, there’s always room to have your own voice and personality,” says Delaney.
Another unique voice in the Whitehorse design community is jewellery designer and textile artist Vanessa Ægirsdóttir, who runs Wild Yukon Furs with her husband George Bahm, a Tlingit trapper and educator.
Ægirsdóttir says that it’s time for a shift in the perception of how we value the handmade, particularly when it’s a skill associated with domestic housework, like sewing, that has long been devalued. “There are a lot of different approaches and ways of thinking of the item, how it’s produced, the value of the human being, and how it was made and where,” she says.
Ægirsdóttir’s signature jewellery is all handmade using fur that has been trapped on Indigenous traplines and bought at prices that match the top-lot prices at auction houses.
“For me, as a non-Indigenous Canadian, working with a material that is pretty steeped in complex cultural and settler history, I have a responsibility to be very mindful and sensitive and do a lot of learning and listening,” Ægirsdóttir says. Her respect for her materials has led to an understated aesthetic that allows their natural beauty to shine through. “I have such a deep abiding love for the materials that I want them to be what you see first.”
Relearning and following traditional methods of creation is a highly personal and thoughtful process, and the love and consideration that goes into a handmade piece is inextricable from the end result.
“It’s a luxury item because of the time and the intention that went into it,” says Delaney.
Ægirsdóttir adds that this intention involves active mindfulness from start to finish. When sitting down to make something, “I have a responsibility to bring my best self every time,” she says. “Fortunately, I really love the work.”