How These Shapely Statement Earrings Celebrate Salish Culture
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Warren Steven Scott’s earrings aren’t just accessories—they’re instant outfit-makers. The 30-year-old Indigenous Canadian, who is based in Toronto but from the Nlaka’pamux Nation in British Columbia, designs shapely baubles that spotlight his Salish culture in an ultramodern way. His graphic creations certainly come at a good moment, considering Marine Serre’s shoulder-grazing feathers and Paco Rabanne’s dangling gems, not to mention the profusion of statement earrings on the street. The season’s It piece is meant to hang prettily off of one’s lobes, but Scott’s creations are far more than mere ear candy.
Scott is one of many North American Indigenous designers recontextualizing their cultural signposts with the craftsmanship skills their forebears have perfected for centuries. “I was really looking for a way to incorporate the fundamental designs and motifs of the Pacific Northwest, particularly that of my ancestors, the Salish people,” he says. “It started with the ovoid, crescent, and triagon [shapes]—elements that are repeated and adapted in Salish carvings and paintings. I also played with positive and negative space in designing these earrings, which is another cornerstone of Salish design.” He was particularly inspired by Salish carvings of bears, eagles, and salmon, as well as various totem poles he found at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, which feature both Salish and Haida carvings.
His statement designs are meant to be genderless—“for anyone with pierced ears,” he says—and come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from clear chandeliers to colorful organic shapes. (They currently retail for $70 on his website.) First, he creates a digital file that serves as a marker, then he has the pieces laser-cut from acrylic and sterling silver at a studio in downtown Toronto. From there, he hand-assembles the earrings in his own home studio. “I try not to waste any of the scrap pieces created from the laser cutting, so some of the earrings have been created from some of the leftover pieces of the original designs,” he says. Of course, eco-mindedness lies at the core of all Indigenous design; many designers approach their relationship with materials from a more spiritual level and make sure to minimize waste throughout the construction process.
The formation of his brand identity actually began in 2018, when he launched a ready-to-wear line two years after graduating from Ryerson University’s fashion design program. Last May, he showed his first womenswear collection at the inaugural Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto (IFWTO). “[The collection] was inspired by old photographs from the ’50s to the ’70s that captured everyday life of Indigenous people on and off reserves, particularly those by Rosemary Eaton,” he says of the clothes, which included some nightgown-style dresses, something Scott says Indigenous women would wear in the ’50s. “These were more authentic depictions of Indigenous people rather than some ethnographic images that exist, which dress up or ornamentalize the subject to look more stereotypically Indigenous.”
Following his presentation, however, he began receiving more and more inquiries about the jewelry shown on the runway. Then, he hosted a pop-up at the Comrags store in Toronto, and the earrings flew off the shelves. “We sold my earrings during the pop-up, and that weekend [they] completely sold out,” he says. “This demand for earrings showed me how viable they could be as business on their own.” They possess wide appeal because they are so objectively beautiful, yes, but they also manage to reference Indigenous culture in a way that is current and not too literal. It’s the tack he applied to his ready-to-wear as well: that native fashion can reference tradition while still appealing to the masses. Especially within the Indigenous jewelry market, which is largely still relegated to the realms of turquoise or beading, Scott’s more modern aesthetic proves the power of working in abstracts.
As he continues to develop his concepts, Scott says he plans to continue riffing off the tension between tradition and innovation. It’s something he and many other Indigenous designers make sure to weigh in an appropriate manner. “I have always wanted to honor my culture and present it in a very contemporary and new way,” he says. “It was very important for me to create something new and not replicate any specific Indigenous artifact, because there are certain artifacts in our culture that aren’t meant to be monetized.” (A headdress, for example, is an item that is repeatedly appropriated in the fashion world; it’s a sacred item that should never be used for commercial sale usage, even as a source of inspiration.)
Up next, Scott hopes to add necklaces in acrylics and precious metals. This summer, he will also experiment with designing a few one-off clothing items, such as tops, dresses, and skirts with florals, ruffles, and crochet. Wherever this expansion may take him, one thing is certain: He will always design pieces that appeal to everyone and let people know that, by supporting Indigenous designers like himself, they’re helping directly combat cultural appropriation.
“Anything that I design, I want it to be for everyone—for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people,” he says. “A good rule to follow as consumers is to consider who made it and where you are buying it from. Buying Indigenous design from a fast-fashion brand is appropriation; buying Indigenous design from an Indigenous designer is appreciation.”
Photo: Mckenzie James1/7
Photo: Mckenzie James2/7
