At a Vancouver fashion show, design, family and Indigenous culture meet
Ay Lelum clothes used a sea serpent motif, a symbol of a transformative journey between generations
At Vancouver Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2018, one family is showing off its unique take on high fashion.
Ay Lelum — or the Good House of Design — is a family-run clothing business from Nanaimo, B.C., that brings traditional Coast Salish designs to ready-wear clothing largely made of organic and recycled fabrics.
Aunalee Boyd-Good and her sister, Sophia, run the business and they put their designs onto the Vancouver catwalk Wednesday..
"It was very exciting for us," Aunalee Boyd-Good told All Points West host Jason D'Souza. "There was a lot of lead up preparing for this show. Just to be able to experience this show with my family was amazing."
The way Boyd-Good tells it, she and her siblings were born to be fashion designers.
Their parents were fashion designers in decades past and still stay involved now that their children have entered the field.
Their mother is the sisters' "design mentor" and their father and brother create traditional art that is used on the garments.
"We grew up in an art studio," she said. "It's something we were raised to do."
While now retired, Boyd-Good says her parents jumped back into design work to be part of their Fashion Week show.
Their pieces in the collection used a sea serpent motif, which she says is a symbol of a transformative journey between generations.
Boyd-Good says her goal is to share her family's take on their cultural traditions with a broader audience.
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With files from CBC Radio One's All Points West