Amelia Rempel

October 5, 2023

Costume design student creates dress honouring MMIWG

_{Amelia Rempel, a student in costume design at the University of the Arts London, created a dress imprinted with the names and stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.}

A woman who loved Christmas. Women with dreams of being artists, doctors, and lawyers. Their stories tragically cut short. For her final school project, Amelia Rempel, a student in costume design at the University of the Arts London (UAL), created a dress imprinted with the names and stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

The project started as a way for the Red River Métis Citizen to bring a piece of Canada with her to London.

"A lot of (other students) were linking their projects back to their history, their heritage, their culture. And I wanted to learn more about myself and where I came from. So, I wanted to really bring in Indigenous culture. Because it's not seen a lot in any media, any movies, and it's not spoken about in London at all," she said. "I really wanted to bring that to light. But as I was speaking to people, the more I spoke to people about it, the more I realized that they knew nothing about Canada's history. They didn't know about the cultural genocide that happens, and I realized that maybe that's what I need to bring to life."

Rempel hadn't yet had the chance to dive deeper into her own Red River Métis heritage and wanted to handle the MMIWG subject very delicately. A family friend told her about a woman she knew who had gone missing and was never found after days of searching.

"I decided to do some more research into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and I found article after article after article, and it was so heartbreaking," Rempel said.

The student screen printed news articles onto calico and silk organza and put them onto a skirt.

"The red satin that is wrapped around her shoulders, her neck, and her mouth are written with the names and ages of the women that have gone missing in the provinces they come from. And it's to represent the silence of the media," Rempel said. "So, I still use the red as symbolism to wrap around her mouth for that silence."

_{The Manitoba Métis Federation, Infinity Women Secretariat, and the Northwest Métis Council recently presented Rempel with a cheque for $20,000 to purchase the dress to help with her tuition. The dress will be displayed at local, regional, and national gatherings to help raise awareness of MMIWG, and will become a part of the collection at the Red River Métis Heritage Centre, scheduled to open in 2026.}

Upon her professor's urging to add a story behind the character, Rempel found inspiration in British author Sarah Perry's gothic novel Melmoth.

"It's about this person who is cursed to walk Earth forever witnessing tragedies or feeling like they're haunted. And I really wanted to run with that," she said.

The Red River Métis Citizen came up with a persona called The Wanderer.

"She is an Indigenous spirit who wanders across North America collecting stories and the names of these women so they should not be forgotten," Rempel said. "She witnesses all these tragedies that happened to these women, and each time she witnesses it, another piece of the story is added to her skirt, and it just gets heavier and heavier and heavier as she walks. It's torn and it's caked in mud from walking for years and years and years."

Designing the dress took a massive toll on the 19-year-old's mental health.

"When I was making this dress and I was doing the research," she said, "I couldn't stop crying. Reading the stories of these young girls and what they wanted to be, some girls were my age and wanted to be artists or doctors or lawyers, and they never got the chance to be that because they just looked a little bit different. And I decided that that was such an injustice that I needed to bring awareness to this subject."

While poring over stories of MMIWG, one woman that loved Christmas stood out to Rempel.

"One of the stories that really touched me is this woman who loved Christmas a lot. My mom loves Christmas and they're around the same age," she said. "It was this family talking about this loved one who loved Christmas so much she would make gifts for her family members and just brought this warmth. And then she went missing. And they don't know what happened to her or where she is, and they don't get that closure. They don't have a body to bury. And I just thought, if that was my mom, I wouldn't be OK. I would be so heartbroken. And that's why I thought it was so important that I make this project."

"I created the character called The Wanderer. She is an Indigenous spirit who wanders across North America collecting stories and the names of these women so they should not be forgotten. She takes on their stories so they may pass peacefully into the afterlife, and you can see on the dress how it is torn, it is tattered, it is caked in mud, and that is because this woman does not stop walking. Because these women will not stop going missing." - Amelia Rempel

The Manitoba Métis Federation, Infinity Women Secretariat, and the Northwest Métis Council recently presented Rempel with a cheque for $20,000 to purchase the dress to help with her tuition. The dress will be displayed at local, regional, and national gatherings to help raise awareness of MMIWG, and will become a part of the collection at the Red River Métis Heritage Centre, scheduled to open in 2026. 

"My parents and I were struggling to figure out how I was going to pay my tuition for school because going to school overseas is really expensive," Rempel said. "I feel so honoured to receive that money. It's all going towards schooling and it's really going to help me move on to that next part of my life."

The UAL student said her ultimate goal would be to design costumes for television and movies.

"I grew up watching The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and Game of Thrones and The Witcher, and I've always loved fantasy," she said. "I think it would be really cool to be able to be a costume designer for movies and stuff like that, and to be a Métis woman representing that for other young girls."

Rempel said her passion for costume design was sparked at a young age.

"Every Halloween, my aunt and uncle and my mom and dad would enter in costume competitions. So, a month before Halloween, our living room would be packed with all these different types of material to create what they wanted. One year, they went as Toy Story. Another year, they built their own LEGO guy suits," she said. "I remember seeing that and just being inspired, being like, 'oh gosh, that looks like so much fun.'"

During the pandemic, the Red River Métis Citizen started making costumes.

"I found out what a cosplayer was, where you dress up as characters from TV shows and stuff, and I really got into that, but I didn't have the money to do it. And so I started thrifting my own costumes, and eventually that turned into making my own costumes," she said. "My mom knows how to sew, so she taught me how to sew and so did my grandmother. And I just started making a lot of my costumes and I really enjoyed it, and soon I started designing my own version of the costumes, and I think it just snowballed from there."

_{Minister Anita Campbell, Spokeswoman for Infinity Women Secretariat, and Minister Frances Chartrand, Vice-President of the Northwest Region, presented the cheque to Rempel and her family.}

Soon enough, Rempel was flying across the pond for her foundation year at UAL's Camberwell College - the top arts school in the world for undergrad degrees.

"I honestly didn't think I would get in. They only have a 20 per cent acceptance rate, and as an international student that was even lower. But I just applied on a whim," she said. "When I got accepted, I lost my mind. And through that entire foundation year, I got to try different art techniques and see what I really wanted to go into. And it was always costume design."

Rempel was one of three Canadians offered a spot in her foundation year of the program. With help from her professors, Rempel prepped her past costumes to build up a portfolio and finished that year with distinction. She was selected to attend Wimbledon College of Arts at UAL to specialize in costume design.

"I didn't have a role model. I didn't know what I was doing when I did costume design. I had my mom and my grandmother. But getting into costume design was hard, especially applying to schools. It's very, very competitive," she said.

Rempel wants to help encourage Youth to enter the field of costume design.

"I want to be kind of like that big sister figure. I want people to ask me questions. If they want to get into art, I want to help encourage them, because there's such a stigma around artists that you're not going to make money and you should never pursue it. It should just be a hobby," she said. "I want to show young girls, boys, young people really that you can be an artist and it can be a successful career. There need to be more positive role models in that artist career." 

Follow Rempel's journey on Instagram at @elysian._.designs.

 

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