Aboriginal entrepreneur starts handbag line

Devon Fiddler is visibly excited as she runs her fingers over the buffalo and deer skin leather samples she’s picked out for her handbag line, SheNative.

“I just wanted to create something that gives back, so I started digging around not really knowing what I wanted to start and then it just came together,” Fiddler said.

Fiddler calls herself the chief changemaker at SheNative because one of her company’s main goals is to give back.

“We’re going to put a percentage aside until we can find either a partner that we can fully align with and give directly to them or we might go ahead and make our own charity,” she said.

Fiddler is also dreaming even bigger with hopes of growing her company to employ local Indigenous women and artists.

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“I wish to have my own bag production facility with say 10-20 employees all doing different things. So, I want to be able to hire aboriginal designers to bring back our Native crafts.”

Right now, Fiddler has three different bag designs she will debut her company with and hopes to start selling them this winter.

“It’s going to take probably another three to four weeks, I’m hoping, just to do the samples and then we can negotiate production.”

The bags will be made of buffalo and deer skin leathers with a special charm on each bag that will be hand beaded possibly using metals and porcupine quills.

“[It’s a] really subtle, minimalist, Native design,” she said.

Fiddler said an Indiegogo campaign will be launched in November to sell the initial bags and then eventually she will operate an online store.

She said the journey to get her company to this point has had many highs and lows, but she has never given up on her dream.

Riley Lawson, a personal image consultant and fashion stylist in Saskatoon, said she is watching these aboriginal trends make a splash in the fashion world.

“You see it influenced in accessories and things like that probably globally for sure. You’re going to see the beading on the purses and the tassels on purses and a lot of leather and natural things. Even in knitwear, there’s a lot of that aboriginal, cultural influence as well,” Lawson said.

Lawson said the leather, beading and natural fabric trend was associated with the 1960s, but it’s making a comeback. 

“It goes with that lifestyle trend that’s coming up right now is that very natural, very easy,” Lawson said.

For more information on SheNative, visit their Facebook page.

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