Victoria Kakuktinniq facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Victoria Kakuktinniq
Modern women's parka by Victoria Kakuktinniq, 2021. The body is synthetic waterproof fabric, with silver fox fur trim on the hood and sealskin trim on the hem and cuffs. The curved hem is typical of the traditional amauti.
Born	1989 (age 35–36) Rankin Inlet

Victoria Kakuktinniq (born 1989) is a talented Inuk fashion designer from Nunavut, Canada. She creates beautiful clothing, like parkas and winter boots called kamiit, all by hand. Her fashion label is called Victoria's Arctic Fashion. Many people see her work as a big part of contemporary Inuit fashion today.

Victoria believes her designs help keep Inuit sewing skills and clothing traditions alive. These skills have always been very important to Inuit people. She also thinks that handmade fur clothes are a great example of sustainable fashion, which means they are made in a way that is good for the planet and lasts a long time.

Her Unique Design Style

Victoria Kakuktinniq mixes old and new styles in her clothing. She uses traditional materials like leather, sealskin, and fox fur. She also uses modern fabrics.

Her parkas often include parts of traditional Inuit clothing. For example, she uses ideas from the amauti, which is a special overcoat worn by Inuit women. The amauti has a curved bottom edge and a large hood. Victoria adds modern touches to her designs, such as zippers that are not in the middle (called asymmetrical), lacing like a corset, and using different blocks of color together (called colour-blocking).

Victoria's Journey in Fashion

Victoria Kakuktinniq started designing parkas in 2012. She learned a lot about sewing from Inuit elders in a program called Miqqut. This program teaches traditional skills to younger people.

After that, she went to fashion design school at MC College in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She graduated in 2013 and began selling her designs at shows and online using social media. Her hard work paid off! In 2015, her business was named "Business of the Year" at a big trade show in Nunavut. In 2017, she opened her very first shop in Iqaluit.

Showcasing Her Amazing Designs

Victoria Kakuktinniq has shown her designs at many fashion shows, both in Canada and around the world. Her first big show was in 2015 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

In 2019, she presented a Spring/Summer collection at International Indigenous Fashion Week, which was part of Paris Fashion Week. For this show, other Inuit designers helped by providing jewelry, accessories, and shoes to go with her outfits. Later that year, Victoria also helped create the Upingaksaaq Fashion Show in Iqaluit, which featured many Inuit designers.

In 2020, she showed her Fall/Winter collection at New York Fashion Week (NYFW), which is a very famous event. She was also one of five artists chosen to design special boots called mukluks for a company called Manitobah Mukluks in 2021.

In 2022, Victoria worked with the well-known winterwear brand Canada Goose. They created a special small collection of clothes together. This was part of a project called Project Atigi, which is a partnership with the national Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. The advertisements for this collection featured Inuit women as models, including throat singer Shina Novalinga, actress Marika Sila, and model Willow Allen. Parkas from this collection were even shown at the Iqaluit Airport in July 2022 as part of an art exhibit.

Victoria Kakuktinniq continues to share her designs with the world. She presented at NYFW again in February 2024. She also showcased her work at the first-ever SWAIA Native Fashion Week in May 2024.

See also

• Nicole Camphaug, an Inuk designer who works with sealskin
• First Nations fashion