Canada Goose Taps 18 Inuit Designers to Design Bespoke Parkas For Project Atigi 2.0
Following huge success in 2019, Canadian outerwear brand Canada Goose is bringing its wildly popular Project Atigi collaboration back for a second year.
The word “Atigi” comes from the Inuktitut language and means “parka” in English.
In 2020, the brand has teamed up with 18 Inuit designers from four Inuit regions in the country – Inuvialuit, Nunatsiavut, Nunavut and Nunavik – to create a custom capsule collection of 90 parkas. Each of the designs has been made using traditional skills and design techniques combined with Canada Goose’s premium fabrics. Proceeds from the sales of the jackets are being donated back to the Inuit communities through Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit representational organization that works to promote health, wellbeing and prosperity across the Inuit regions.
In a release, the brand describes the women behind the parka designs, saying: “The designers of Project Atigi are mothers and grandmothers, nurses and teachers, office workers and small business owners – but when they pick up a needle and thread, they become something else: designers.” It goes on to explain how each of the 18 women were sent kits which includes the brand’s Arctic Tech fabric, fur for trimming, and zippers and lining. They were tasked with designing a capsule collection of five gender-neutral pieces representative of their culture and artisanship. From there, it was entirely up to each woman how she chose to use those elements in her designs, and what the final pieces would look like.
Alaana Tatty is one of this year’s designers, and is also the founder of a parka making school at her local community centre in Rankin Inlet, Nunavet. On designing for Canada Goose, she says, “Knowing someone out there, around the world, will own one of my parkas makes me nervous – and excited. I think I’ll feel so proud.” For Olivia Tagalik, also from Nunavet, the design needed to be practical for the winters here in the North. “We’re always going out, either driving or on a Ski-Doo or an ATV. Or we’re at the arena for hours, watching hockey. That’s why the back is cut longer so you’ve got something warm when you’re sitting.”
The skills these women possess have been passed down through generations before them, making them incredibly valuable and important to protect. “It’s each of our responsibility to learn as much as we can to ensure that it’s passed down to the next generation,” says Tagalik. Lisa-Louie Ittukallak from Puvirnituq, Quebec, agrees. “Keeping up our traditions is important to me because it’s very beautiful,” she says.
See some of the designs below:
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
Photograph courtesy of Canada Goose
The Canada Goose Project Atigi collection will be available in select stores across Canada and will be available online at canadagoose.com from January 23.
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