Getting a foothold in the fashion industry can be daunting for anyone—but in Christian Allaire’s case, eking out a place for himself as an Ojibwe journalist from the Nipissing First Nation reserve in rural Ontario was especially challenging. As a result, during his tenure as Vogue’s senior fashion and style writer, Allaire has played his position forward, platforming other Indigenous creatives in stories on everything from dream catcher hair to the rise of model Quannah Chasinghorse andVancouver’s Indigenous Fashion Week. Now, in a new memoir, From the Rez to the Runway Forging: My Path in Fashion (Collins), Allaire delves into his profoundly meaningful (and sometimes isolating) experience being a change-maker in his field.
This week, Vogue spoke to Allaire about building a career spotlighting Indigenous fashion, drawing inspiration from Nlaka’pamux author Terese Marie Mailhot, and what he’d tell his younger self if the two were to meet for coffee.
Vogue: How are you feeling about the release of your first memoir?
Christian Allaire: It’s bizarre. You spend so long with a memoir, but you don’t really think about people reading it. So when that time comes, it’s nerve-wracking. It’s very earnest and very raw, so I’m trying not to think about people reading it!
How does the experience compare to releasing your first book, The Power of Style?
My first book was very much about championing other people, and this one is very personal and very much focused on me. I don’t really tend to do a lot of writing that’s personal. I much prefer telling other people’s stories, so it was a challenge to do this, because it made me face a lot of things that I probably have been trying not to face.
I was so taken by your description of the contrast between the life that you’ve built in New York and the life that you describe at home with your family in Canada. What’s helped you unite those two sides of yourself?
Life on the rez is pretty drastically [different from] living in New York. It’s very centered in community and nature and our cultural teachings, so living in a concrete jungle is very much the opposite of that. For me, it’s been about finding fellow Native folks in the city and communing and connecting that way, and having a sounding board for whenever I’m missing certain elements of home or culture. Finding my friends and my people has really helped me bridge those two worlds.
