Making Our Own Way, Ep. 3: Fashion Designer, Tailor and Craftsperson Warren Steven Scott
If designer Warren Steven Scott’s contemporary, colourful earrings look familiar, there’s a good reason for that. In recent years, his designs have been spotted on Reservation Dogs star Devery Jacobs, Canada’s Drag Race contestant Ilona Verley and Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior and the first Indigenous cabinet minister in American history—as well as in the pages of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and New York magazines. Funny story, though: Scott, who is from the Nlaka’pamux Nation in British Columbia, didn’t actually intend to design jewellery. When he was chosen to show a clothing collection at the first Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto in 2018, he needed accessories for his models, so he designed oversized, acrylic earrings inspired by his Nlaka’pamux and Sts’ailes heritage. After that, he didn’t have the resources to put the collection into production—but he could make earrings. He hand-made 30 pairs, which he sold at a pop-up at Comrags. When they quickly sold out, he saw the business potential and launched an e-commerce business, which is now doing so well, it allows him to produce clothing and artworks. In this week’s episode of Making Our Own Way, Warren chats with Friday Things about building a career in the Canadian fashion industry as an Indigenous person, why happiness is a big part of his aesthetic and how it feels when your family finally gets what you do for a living.
Making Our Own Way is a six-part video series about GTA creatives who are figuring out their own unique pathways to success, both within and outside of traditional power structures. Hosted by Friday Things founder and editor Stacy Lee Kong, each video features thoughtful conversations about what it’s like to break new ground—and why it matters that we do. We also laugh (a lot).