Mirian Njoh dishes on Christian Allaire's bestselling memoir and reflects on her own fashion journey
Christian Allaire's memoir From the Rez to the Runway traces his journey as a person of Ojibwe descent navigating the cutthroat fashion industry.
In From the Rez to the Runway, Allaire shares his journey from growing up on the Nipissing First Nation reserve to breaking into the world of high fashion in New York City, navigating the challenges and realities of the industry.
He shares the difficulty of balancing his ambitions with the often-inaccurate perceptions — including his own — of his culture's place in the realm of fashion, offering a powerful story of staying true to yourself while pursuing your dreams.
Mirian Njoh has done her time in the fashion trenches. She's an influencer who has earned her stripes as a stylist, a model and a creative director.
A former Canada Reads panellist, she loves any chance she gets to talk about the books she's reading.
Njoh joined Antonio Michael Downing on The Next Chapter to talk about why many of the experiences in Allaire's book From the Rez to the Runway resonated with her.
Antonio Michael Downing: First up, let's talk about Christian Allaire. What kind of work does he do in fashion?
Mirian Njoh: Christian is a fashion and style editor at Vogue. He focuses on writing often about Indigenous fashion —and all the different happenings and evolutions — and he makes commentary about that niche specific part of fashion. He really brings his personal background as an Indigenous person from Nipissing, Ont., and he brings that to the pages of Vogue.
What does the book tell us about how his love of fashion started as a child?
I would say that it really started with his mother's copies of Vogue Magazine, ironically, because before then he had an exposure to fashion, but I don't know that he really articulated a love for it.
His exposure to that fashion and the glamour led to him really seeing fashion as an art form.- Mirian Njoh
It was about adolescence, around that type of time, his coming-of-age, that he happened upon his mother's issues of Vogue magazine and fashion television. His exposure to that fashion and the glamour led to him really seeing fashion as an art form.
You're of the same sort of generation of fashionistas as Christian. Did you have a similar beginning in your early love of fashion as well?
It's actually really funny that I saw a lot of myself in his experiences because, like him, my introduction to the world of fashion was through fashion television too. I remember it coming on and there was nothing like it on TV.
And then another funny parallel that I saw between Christian and I was he talked about going on style.com, which used to be a really huge platform for all the runways. As soon as they were photographed, they were uploaded to style.com. He used to really go on there and and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I did that too."
I don't know why I did this, but I used to go on there and literally chronicle my favourite looks and I don't know — I was saving them for nothing. I just enjoyed the process of finding and looking and categorizing fashion that I loved.
Christian grew up in a very specific cultural context, as did you, neither of which are the mainstream of the fashion industry. So can you talk about those contexts and how culture informed style in your case as well as Christian's?
There was a quote that he put that really stuck out to me that connects with this question. He talks about how his exposure to his cultural fashion was through his sister. She used to dance in powwows. His mother and his aunties would often gather together to create his sister's regalia for those powwows. And so he had, you know, all these examples of fashion literally right in his living room as a child. And he describes it as design embedded in culture.
I thought that that was such an interesting way to look at it because I had similar exposure to West African fashion too.- Mirian Njoh
I thought that was such an interesting way to look at it because I had similar exposure to West African fashion too. When I just think about growing up — before the fashion televisions and before even thinking of fashion as an industry and a career or anything — I had my mother and my grandmother who both sew. My mom in particular loves to wear eye-catching African textile fits.
I remember being so embarrassed of her back in the day, like, "Mom, what are you doing? Why are you coming to the PTA meeting dressed like that?"
But now, I can look back on it and I see that it was my version of exposure.
Let's talk a little bit about this world of fashion and breaking into it, which seems so unwelcoming.
He learns the power of networking very early. He also has a lot of family support. Family and community support is another theme that I saw recurring a lot. That was the difference between making it and not making it. That's really what helped him ascend, from my observation.
I actually think that his mother's support, where she encouraged him to quit his job, is radical. But it was probably the best thing for him because he went home — he spent the summer off. He reconnected with his family and his roots because he's been familiar with all of the regalia his entire life, but he's never worn it. And that summer he asks his mom and his auntie's, "Can you make me a ribbon shirt?"
And they're floored because they never thought he would ask for such a thing. They are so happy to make it for him. And so he's adopting these things. He's ready to put it on.
Family and community support is another theme that I saw recurring a lot. That was the difference between making it and not making it.- Mirian Njoh
When he does return to Manhattan — he's looking for a new job and he's looking for a new community — he connects with other Indigenous artists and designers and they open up this new world for him.
From that point onward, it becomes a really central part of the lens that he's operating through and that's what helps him when he lands at Vogue.
Now I got to ask do you do the same thing with West African culture? Does it function the same way for you?
I was just in Lagos and I think that it's always really refreshing. There's something really refreshing about immersing yourself back in where you come from. Even if I'm not dressed in head-to-toe Ankara prints or something, I'm still carrying all that with me.
And when I do wear it, I wear it with pride and it's just, it's always there.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
