\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
![\"MIKAELA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4558110_web1_260914-Crafted-on-the-catwalk-00727.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
ShopWAG\u2019s Sherri Van Went on the Crafted runway during setup at the WAG on Monday. Van Went has headed up the annual event for six years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The ground floor is teeming with people lugging chairs and pushing trolleys. A stream of white material unravelling from its roll prompts a shouted \u201cOK to step on this?\u201d and receives an equally loud \u2018No!\u201d in reply, voices raised above the metallic buzz of a drill as staff from a local production company put together seats.<\/p>\n
Another team starts building the 100-foot long runway where 64 models \u2014 local talent, agency hires and eight VIPs \u2014 will strut their stuff.<\/p>\n
Behind the Scenes<\/p>\n
How is the stage lit?<\/p>\n
Who hangs the paintings?<\/p>\n
What happens in the dish pit?<\/p>\n
Behind the Scenes is a recurring series highlighting the important and often invisible work happening at arts and culture venues across Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
Designers stroll in with their precious cargo carefully zipped in garment bags when the sunny September day abruptly switches to a moody grey. The skies open and there\u2019s a rush to get everything inside before it gets soaked.<\/p>\n
Racks roll in swiftly down brightly lit corridors before each designer makes their way towards the woman at the centre of it all \u2014 ShopWAG\u2019s Sherri Van Went.<\/p>\n
Clipboards listing names and numbers stacked neatly by her arm, Van Went consults her laptop and checks in each person, ignoring for a moment the incessantly trilling phone peeking out of the many-pocketed stylish toolbelt slung around her waist.<\/p>\n
But before she can answer, her attention is required by a model wanting to know where to go for her fitting.<\/p>\n
A worried security guard looks around the corner \u2014 there\u2019s a group in the lobby waiting to be taken to an event room. Van Went consults her lists, shakes her head and instructs the guard to take them elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Event preview<\/p>\n
North of North Market<\/p>\n
WAG-Qaumajuq, 300 Memorial Blvd.
\nTonight, 5-9 p.m.
\nFree<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a scene that repeats throughout the day, people wandering in and out of her office \u2014 full of more clothing rails, her desktop scattered with new pairs of socks for the shop, floor plans for Tuesday night, and, rather improbably, a pair of neon-green heeled boots with matching luminescent lime fishnets tucked into them \u2014 looking for scissors, for tape, for paddles.<\/p>\n
Sipping from a can of pop someone\u2019s helpfully placed in her hand, she wonders if she has time for lunch, decides yes, she can grab a few bites of a salad; there\u2019s enough time before one of the VIP models arrives.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of controlled chaos that would faze most people, but Van Went is in her element. It\u2019s her sixth year heading the annual event, which in previous years has coincided with the ShopWAG Crafted: Show + Sale (Nov. 6-8) but was brought forward this year to coincide with the Season 2 premi\u00e8re of North of North.<\/p>\n
After working together for the first time last year, the team behind the APTN, CBC and Netflix series inquired about the possibility of partnering again on a larger scale and Van Went was happy to oblige. Tonight\u2019s event includes a pop-up installation of costumes featured on the show and a market with pieces by nearly 50 makers from the series.<\/p>\n
Nunavik designer Winifred Nungak has flown in from Kangirsuk with a collection from her namesake label, Winifred Designs, and begins to unwrap one of her parkas, which was featured in Season 1 of North of North; she made four for the second season.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Winifred Nungak puts her pieces on a rack at the WAG.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n For Crafted on the Catwalk she is dressing North of North co-creator Alethea Arnaquq-Baril.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked what kind of style she wanted to wear and she let me choose for her. I am really excited; I cannot wait to see my piece on her because I was inspired by her style,\u201d Nungak says with a smile.<\/p>\n When the Main Hall fills up later, Van Went will be nowhere to be seen, melting away into the background like the consummate professional she is.<\/p>\n But right now, she\u2019s at the centre of it all.<\/p>\n \u201cSome these artists have been coming for the last 12 years, so I get to see them once a year. It\u2019s like a clutch of friends coming together,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\tDish<\/p>\n Every Second Friday<\/p>\n The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and AV Kitching.<\/p>\n \t\t\tSign up for Dish<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t Her job as manager of retail operations and partnerships requires her to attend numerous markets and trade shows, almost all of which would close with a catwalk.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I changed things around here \u2014 it\u2019s the fashion show first before the market, so people can get excited about what they see and this way it\u2019s easier for the artists to sell,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve developed these relationships, we\u2019ve cared about these artists. We want them to succeed with sales, we want their works to be celebrated and with this show, we get to celebrate both of those things together. It\u2019s too good to be true,\u201d she says, suddenly tearing up.<\/p>\n And with that she\u2019s off, toolbelt tightened around her waist, glasses perched atop her head, to sort yet another thing out before she\u2019s pulled in yet another direction.<\/p>\n Spotlight on three Indigenous Manitoba designers<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Fashion Ikwe designer Amy McPherson brings her pieces to the WAG on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Fashion Ikwe\u2019s Amy McPherson has been a Crafted regular for the last four years but this will be the first time she\u2019ll be showing her clothing collection, an expanded version of the one she created for Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week two years ago.<\/p>\n The collection was inspired by a piece she made at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity during her Indigenous Haute Couture Residency, where she had presented works made from a repurposed Eaton\u2019s mink fur coat and remnants of a Hudson\u2019s Bay Co. blanket, weaving in part of her own history by including her family\u2019s documents in the piece.<\/p>\n McPherson will be bringing her new jewelry pieces, including a small collection of caribou hair tufted earrings featuring vintage beads, Arctic fox fur or porcupine quill work, to today\u2019s Crafted Market.<\/p>\n \u201cI also have my moose hide mini-stud earrings, as well as a single, one-of-a-kind pair of cobalt blue gauntlets with beadwork and Arctic fox fur,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Sylvie Desjarlais operates Bo Peep Reimagined out of a workshop on Arlington.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n It\u2019s been all go at Sylvie Desjarlais\u2019s workshop on Arlington Street. The designer of Bo Peep Reimagined had 11 pieces on the runway at Tuesday\u2019s Crafted catwalk, and will be at today\u2019s market with more of her creations.<\/p>\n Desjarlais is passionate about staying true to the ethos of her brand. Everything she makes is from reclaimed wool blankets, supplemented by other found materials.<\/p>\n \u201cI use reclaimed buttons that I find, and occasionally, if I\u2019m looking for something specific, I will allow myself to have a new button. I can\u2019t emphasize this enough: it\u2019s very important to me that I try to be true to my brand, which is all about sustainability and reclaimed materials,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Wendy Sinclair of Pretty Windy Designs prepares for the Crafted on the Catwalk.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Wendy Sinclair of Pretty Windy Designs is taking a breather after showing eight new pieces from her latest collection, Sky Blue and Buffalo Hides. This is the first time the designer has worked on an autumn\/winter line, and the first time she\u2019s showed menswear.<\/p>\n \u201cThe collection to me is a reminder of how simple things can be at the end of the day. We\u2019re right here, right now, under the sky and on the Earth and we should remember not to get lost in the fast pace of our everyday modern lives, to slow down and live in the beauty of the day,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She is working towards getting more of her pieces ready for the Nov. 6-8 market.<\/p>\n av.kitching@winnipegfreepress.com<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t AV Kitching AV Kitching is an arts and life writer at the Free Press. She has been a journalist for more than two decades and has worked across three continents writing about people, travel, food, and fashion. Read more about AV<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting AV produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n \t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Reporter
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n