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Manitoba·Video

How a former fashion model broke the colour barrier on Winnipeg runways

Community reporter Ayo Odeyemi talks with Hortense Hodge, a former Winnipeg model originally from British Guyana who graced the pages of magazines, screens and runways during the city's fashion-centric heyday of the 1980s.

Hortense Hodge looks back on 'charmed life' as one of Winnipeg's only Black models in print, on stage

CBC News ·
Former model Hortense Hodge says diversity has improved on the runway. 'I love the fact that you have the Africanadians, you have the Indigenous models, you have the transgender models,' she says. 'Now that it's started, let's carry it on.' (Trevor Brine/CBC)

CBC community reporter Ayo Odeyemi set out to find and share the untold stories of "Africanadians" — Odeyemi's phrase for Black Canadians who have "distinguished themselves and excelled, while breaking boundaries and protocols in the history of friendly Manitoba."

It's a perfect description for Hortense Hodge.

The former Winnipeg model was among a handful who graced the pages of magazines, screens and runways during the city's fashion-centric heyday of the 1980s.

Odeyemi sat down with Hodge at her home to find out how a young girl from British Guyana ended up at the top of the fashion game in Winnipeg.

Former fashion model breaks colour barrier in style

3 years ago
Duration 4:58
CBC community reporter Ayo Odeyemi sits down with Hortense Hodge, one of Winnipeg's first Black 'super' models of the 1980s.
A banner of upturned fists, with the words 'Being Black in Canada'.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

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