Help Madison Leiren Attend Banff's Haute Couture Program

Hi there!

I’m Madison Leiren and I’m a fashion designer based in Seattle, WA. I have been crafting fashion design for 15 years working on garments from all sorts of cultures and eras, specializing in Bridal. I love getting to work in my field and help folks wear something that feels special and unique in such a significant day.

I recently applied to a prestigious educational opportunity in hopes of attending Banff Centre for Art and Creativity’s Indigenous Haute Couture program. This would be a special class to me because of my native Swampy Cree/Métis heritage and desire to learn the creative wisdom of techniques used by my tribes. Techniques such as quilling, tufting, and beadwork are highly specialized and that knowledge isn’t easily accessed.

I have been blessed to have received a scholarship to attend the program, but living on one person’s income in Seattle is prohibitive to taking a month from work and traveling to attend an educational program in Alberta, Canada.

Attending this program would help further my design and sewing skills in techniques unavailable for me to learn locally in an educational setting, as well as help connect me to other members and mentors in the Indigenous fashion community. It will help bring my designs and business visibility as the only Canadian American Indigenous Bridal fashion designer.

My hope is to raise enough money to cover my rent, phone bill for the month, electric, etc. so that while I am unable to work in order to attend this program, my minimal expenses are covered.

Unfortunately in my youth, I wasn’t around my indigenous mother’s side of the family. She struggled, like so many in our community do, with addiction, which led to her passing a few years ago. I didn’t get to have the connection with my Swampy Cree and Metis relatives and heritage that I longed for. With her passing, I became the matriarch of my family. I have left only one uncle who lives abroad, and have no cousins until 4 generations back. I felt a shattering of my family line, and a strong pull to reconnect with my ancestral heritage to re-build my knowledge of myself for myself, and for generations to come, so that no more is lost with death.

Throughout my lifetime, I’ve studied fashion design and worked over 15 years now as a designer. I’ve made countless custom gowns, altered thousands of wedding dresses, designed suits, and couture gowns for brides all over the world. I am so grateful for growing up with my Norwegian culture, but yearn to learn the techniques, the materials, and gain wisdom from the elders in the crafts I wish to connect with in Banff. With the awards I’ve achieved through my work, such as Best Bridal Boutique from The Seattle Times and Seattle Magazine, national scholarships from Fashion 360, and more, (please see Leirendesigns.com for a full list of awards) I know it would only add to my designs unique platform to tell more of my story through fabric and thread.

I focus so much with my clients on crafting fashions that encapsulate their stories, heritage, and what is sentimental to them, and with being the only Canadian indigenous professional wedding gown designer that I know of, I think it would give great visibility to our heritage and culture and gives me fulfilment in learning, using, and displaying techniques I could only gain through an experience like this. I can’t wait to inspire indigenous brides to see how techniques, art, and wisdom passed through generations of skilled crafts people can help them celebrate their life journey in a way that resonates with their story.

While lacework, beading, and details have been a huge part of my work in bridal in the last 15 years, my hope is to gain new techniques, skills, and knowledge in beading through indigenous skills, tufting, and quillwork that can be applied to couture techniques.

The two sketches below are what I hope to focus on building, one wedding gown and one cocktail dress, both with nature-inspired elements. The woman in the picture in the rapeseed field is my great grandmother, who I was close with until she passed at the age of 104. She is my link to my indigenous heritage. My family was re-located to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba once they had to leave their ancestral lands living with their tribe, the Swampy Cree, so my family has had a farm there for many many generations. The rapeseed is one of the crops they grow.

The other sketch is of a ballgown with a long train in a gorgeous satin with a pleated full skirt. I’m envisioning nude tulle for the base of the bodice with extensive beading, tufting, and maybe even some quill work. Once I learn those techniques, I will be more confident of how I can use those applications in my work.

I am hoping to debut these two looks at the Seattle Wedding Show in 2026, as well as at the Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week in 2025, once they are completed. I know a month is not a lot of time for this intensity of work, but if things are ahead of schedule, I can also create more looks for a bridal cocktail hour/reception dress, as we’ve been seeing some shorter, knee length dresses trending with heavy bead work and hand sewn details.

I would like to learn how to translate sketches of flowers through the lens of indigenous beadwork to create patterns that celebrate our heritage in a way that is editorial and worthy of the title haute couture.

I would like to spend the first week studying other pieces and focusing on learning techniques, then drawing out the embroidery patterns and setting up my embroidery frame with the fabric prepped and ready to go. The second and possibly third week would be spent doing the beading work, getting feedback on technique, more review of translating patterns for future bridal designs, etc. and the fourth week would be spent sewing the pieces together. I’m envisioning the rapeseed dress as a skin toned satin slip under a nude colored tulle with bright yellow beads and perhaps some silk 3-D petals, shaped using my japanese flower iron, with green stitching and/or beads for the stems. I’d also like to find a fun way to add some mouse tracks.

I would love input on how to source materials for tufting. I would probably want to focus on grey/silver/white colored fur for the bridal tufting and don’t know what way to best source what type of fur, what type of thread to use, what unique hand needles are needed, etc.

My knowledge of garment construction and European style of beading is proficient, but my focus really is to learn how to create embroidery patterns and use materials in a way that would honor my heritage.