All-Aboriginal fashion shoot hits Thunder Bay

In March, five First Nations youth took part in all-First Nations photo shoot for Thunder Bay clothing shop The Urban Boutique. The shoot, first thought up by Tony McGuire for Theymedia, was the first of its kind in the city.
“I ran the idea by Angelo that he should be the first in town to do a fully Aboriginal shoot for urban wear,” McGuire said.
Angelo Petta, owner and operator of The Urban Boutique, said that the shoot, entitled Urban Tradition, would be the first of a series of shoots involving people from different ethnicities. In the end, he plans on bringing all of the models together to form a shoot called United Kultures.
Petta said that the Urban Tradition shoot was “awesome.”
The models were Sean Morriseau, Devyn Shebagegit, Corey Spence, Brodie Radford, and Melinda Henderson.
“Aboriginals are the most “urban” people around and I indicated that a focus on them would not only be good for business but also be a Thunder Bay first,” McGuire explained. “Tbaytel was having problems finding images of Aboriginals and did some free shoots to get images to use in their advertising but they had still not taken the open plunge of using an Aboriginal-only campaign. I wanted to be the first to support that.”
McGuire said that Petta agreed it would be a good fit for the boutique.
“Sixty per cent of my customers are Aboriginal,” Petta said. “I wanted to give back to the community with fashion. I think it is a good thing to do to showcase Aboriginal models so that others can see it and maybe it will give them hope. They could think ‘hey if they can do it, I can do it too.”
Henderson said that she wanted to get involved in the photo shoot with The Urban Boutique “because I always heard about this boutique. It was definitely an experience I couldn’t miss.”
Henderson came across the opportunity after McGuire put out a casting call on Facebook looking for First Nations models. Morriseau also responded to the call. Radford, who goes by the name Ibe, is a rapper who is sponsored by The Urban Boutique. Shebagegit was contacted directly by McGuire to be involved.
Shebagegit said there was no hesitation when it came to agreeing to partake.
“The hardest part for me was when we had to look mean,” Shebagegit explained. “We had to keep giving attitude. I was trying not to laugh at those times.”
Shebagegit has been involved in local fashion shows and photo shoots in the past. She was featured in the Remember Me Project, which was to help spread awareness of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Her brother, Spence, was on site the day of the Urban Boutique shoot.
“They were all good and followed directions,” McGuire said of the youth. “People can sometimes not listen, but in this case they trusted me.”
Shebagegit said that it was fun to try on all of the different clothes and meet the other models. Petta also let the models pick out an outfit each as a thank you for participating in the shoot.
“The Urban Tradition Look Book,” an album containing the photographs from the shoot, can be found on Facebook on The Urban Boutique’s Facebook page online.