Her designs have swirled across the stage at the Juno Awards. She is the reigning world champion in 
women’s native fancy dancing. She stands on the verge of a marketing initiative that could spread native couture across the continent.
It’s hardly surprising Carol Melting Tallow’s aboriginal name is Eagle Woman: the Lethbridge College grad (Fashion Design and Marketing 2008) is soaring as her dreams take flight to reality.
“I threw a feather in the air and let it go where it would,” says Melting Tallow, a member of the Blood Band. “I’m putting every penny I have into this venture because I believe in myself.”
What Melting Tallow envisions is the continent-wide marketing of the native fashions she designs, her way of preserving her heritage through her creativity. She has, she believes, no competition in a wide-open and burgeoning field; the fastest growing ethnic group in Canada is First Nations.
After beginning at Lethbridge College, Melting Tallow briefly studied international design at LaSalle College in Montreal, then returned to Lethbridge to learn the final touches she needed to put her plan in motion. Among the elements she added to her education were public speaking and time management.
“Jane Anderson, one of my inspirational instructors, and Vicki Charge [fashion design instructor] groomed me to become what I know I can be,” she says of her two years on campus. “This is one of the best fashion design institutions in Canada; instructors allowed me to expand on my traditional artistic talent, develop a strong sense of cultural identity and an excellent understanding of the business world.
“I’m walking out of here with a diploma in one hand and a business plan in the other.”
Melting Tallow’s vision is multi-faceted, but focused. She is already an accomplished designer, deeply immersed in her native culture. Her goal is to market that culture through patterns, sewing classes and, one day, home décor “like Martha Stewart.”
“There are four million native consumers in North America and many more fans of native culture overseas,” says this determined young woman. “You have to have a dream to begin with; everyone wants to drive a Cadillac Escalade. I’ve got a ’98 Windstar - the lights shut off every time I drive over a bump - but one day I’m going to have that Cadillac. This is no longer a dream, I’m doing it.”
At the Junos in Calgary this spring, an Inuit performer from the Northwest Territories saw the designs Melting Tallow was demonstrating and asked her if she could wear one on stage. The young Standoff designer was thrilled.
“She was captivating, just drop-dead sexy, and that was my dress she was in.”
Melting Tallow believes networking is crucial to her success as a business woman. She has traded names at the Smithsonian in Washington and in Florida where she won the world fancy dance title. There, the Seminole nation is into big business like NASCAR racing, and Melting Tallow upped her contact quotient. She hopes to return to the Junos, too, and have her designs shown at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.
Melting Tallow’s designs use basic Materials (“Thank heaven for Wal-Mart,” she tells fellow design students during a class presentation), along with earthy adornments such as chicken feathers, horsehair and porcupine quills. She’s designed a jacket for Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Her dancing is Melting Tallow’s escape from stress, something in which she takes pride. Her two-year-old son Xavier is learning a few steps; both mother and son performed at Lethbridge College during Native Awareness Week earlier this year.
“When I see a child dance, I feel a great joy,” says Melting Tallow. “When I dance, I’m in the moment and I forget my troubles. It’s a passion, a love. It’s something that bridges families.”
She has praise, too, for Lethbridge College’s belief in creating a learning environment on which she, a First Nations student, felt comfortable.
“Lethbridge College is moving forward toward a more diverse, multicultured institution, showcasing ethnic diversity and bridging the gap of cultural differences.”
With her diploma in hand, Melting Tallow is ready to soar.
“Now it’s up to me to make a better future for my family, my people and my nation.”
