Indigenous fashion models, vendors still waiting for payment after working Sask. fashion show

forge intriguer Lauryn ready says she wants to experience wherefore her models have yet to receive payment for working at an Indigenous fashion show held in Regina earlier this fall.

Models from around the Prairies participated in the FashioNATIVE runway show at the DoubleTree hotel and conference centre in Regina, held Oct. 10 to 12.

Cook, who owns High Heat Salon and Boutique in Saskatoon, brought 10 models to walk the runway.

She said the models travelled for hours from northern Saskatchewan and Edmonton to attend. They also paid for their own accommodations. In return, Cook said models were promised $100 per runway walk.

"Some of them walked eight times," Cook said. "That's $800."

Dreaver said she wasn't concerned about not being provided a contract, as fashion shows she's attended in the past have followed through with verbal promises.

"I didn't ask for any of that because most of the time when we are told something, that's what usually goes," Dreaver said. "We never actually had to deal with anything like that before."

Despite the confusion over how much money the models were set to receive, the designer's contract states models should have at least received $100 each.

A group chat between Dreaver and other models shows multiple people are still waiting to receive any money from the event.

"I feel like that was a really bad experience," Dreaver said. "After experiencing everything that we did at FashioNATIVE, I'm just gonna take it easy on the fashion shows."

Almost two months later, Cook's models say they're still waiting for payment.

Cook said she reached out to Racette several times to ask for payment and has not received a response.

"It's just $100, just a flat rate [of] $100."

"There's a lot of new people in the industries who don't know about funding and how it works, and how it can go absolutely right or it can go upside down in an instant."

Racette said she's considering taking out a personal loan to pay the vendors and models.

Cook said some of the models were as young as 10 or 12 years old, and it's disheartening to have their first time in the industry be a negative one.

"I've talked to a lot of parents and they said that they had paid their daughters so that they didn't have to tell them that they got ripped off," she said.

Cook said she also paid each model a $20 tip as consolation for not getting paid by Racette, and didn't get paid for her own time styling each model.

Cook said Racette has since stopped replying to her messages about that promised payment.

Models aren't the only ones who say they haven't been paid.

The three-day event featured small business owners selling beadwork and jewelry.

Tenielle Bird, owner of Pihtikwe Market in Saskatoon, organizes opportunities for small businesses to showcase their work in Saskatchewan.

She said she partnered with Racette to bring vendors to the fashion show, but the event was not as advertised.

"I feel like it was really deceptive and really dishonest," Bird said. "It gave me a big learning experience."

She said vendors' only successful day was Saturday, the day of the runway walk, when they worked 10 hours.

Bird said Racette cancelled Sunday's market and told vendors to head home.

"People kept backing out of the fashion show for family or travel reasons," she said.

"We only had a certain amount of designers showcased, so we just stated it to one day. And the agreement was for me to reimburse partial payment for the vendors because they paid so much money for three days and they only got the two days."

She said vendors were told they'd be partially refunded to make up for the time they had lost, but that they haven't received that money yet.

"I was hired for only $500 but I didn't get paid for that," Bird said. "I was like, 'It's OK, you don't have to pay me. You can give me the money though, and I'll forward that to the vendors for one-third of the time that they came here.' But they didn't get it. I didn't get it."

Bird said Racette has stopped replying to her messages.

Racette said this was her first time organizing an independent event, but she has been putting on fashion shows for international Indigenous organizations for years.

"I wasn't going to be able to pay all the models or all the designers out of the front end of the sponsorship that I got," Racette said. "Grants can take a while. And I communicated with the designers and some of the models in a group chat that I'm in, stating that I messed up on the budget."

"Chelsa herself said that she did receive $70,000 and she's waiting for the other $30,000," Dreaver said.

"It was not enough to cover the entire event," Racette said.

There were time-sensitive payments that needed to be made with the money she did have — "The venue, the food, photography, the marketing, the performers," she said.

Bill Stevenson, the photographer for the show, posted on Facebook that he has not yet received payment.

"Generally, it's a 70/30 split," Stevenson said. "Some [grants] can be a pretty quick turnaround. Some of them can take months."

Racette said she cut off communication on Facebook, where she had previously been talking with those who worked at the show, and recently asked that people only contact her through email or her phone number. She has continued posting about her personal life on the social media platform.

"I have communicated to tell them that I have not been able to get the rest of my grants or my sponsorship yet," Racette said.

"Once I do, everybody else will get reimbursed and then the models and designers will get paid."

---

---