Long before Halifax Fashion Week became one of Atlantic Canada’s largest fashion events, Solitha Shortte was producing runway shows driven by her determination, borrowed spaces and money from her own pay cheque.
The founder and creative director of The House of Soli says she entered Nova Scotia’s fashion industry not to compete with existing organizers, but to create opportunities she believed did not exist for many racialized designers, models and creatives.
“I’ve always been a disruptor,” Shortte says. “It was a means to get visibility on the talent that was often left out of the productions happening around the city.”
Originally from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Shortte moved to Halifax to attend Mount Saint Vincent University, where she completed a Bachelor of Business Administration specializing in marketing. Her academic background complemented an already established modelling career, but once she entered Nova Scotia’s fashion scene, she says she noticed something missing.
“I created production shows because diversity was not present on the runway here in Nova Scotia,” she says.
“It was the tokenized models, and then there was exclusion to access on the runway. Other than that, it was status quo and the same industry standard models on the runway, as it was mirroring the international markets and what the industry said beauty was.”
She says her own experiences as a Black model fuelled her determination to create a different kind of platform.
“I know what it’s like walking in the room and being the only one that looks like you and then feeling left out.
“Whether it’s being on set or going to castings for runway shows and never getting selected.”
Those experiences eventually became the foundation for Soli Productions, which officially launched in 2018 after Shortte had already begun producing independent runway events in 2016, serving as a launchpad for several local models, designers and creatives.
For Shortte, however, the runway has always represented more than clothing.
“It became about emerging talent… I wanted to create a sense of belonging through my production.”
Shortte describes herself as an immigrant Black woman entering an industry where she says white organizers overwhelmingly occupied leadership positions.
“I wasn’t welcome to sit at their table.”
“So I built my own table.”
She says that meant recruiting people who had never considered careers in fashion.
Rather than relying on established agencies, she found aspiring models on buses, in restaurants and on Halifax streets before training them herself.
“So I went and found models on the street. I found models on buses, in restaurants.”
Her objective, she says, was never simply diversity for diversity’s sake.
“It disrupted the norm that was in Halifax, and created an urgency for other people to change what the rosters looked like on their board, the models on the runways and the range of designers from established to emerging, across diverse backgrounds showcased.”
“There was no substantive diversity. It was a checkbox, and it was tokenized.”
Working conditions, rising costs
Shortte’s efforts come as fashion continues to grapple with issues of diversity and economic uncertainty worldwide.
According to The Fashion Spot’s 2025 Diversity Report, 54 percent of models appearing in major fashion campaigns remain white. Models who identify as Black, Asian, Indigenous or Latinx account for 32 percent of runway castings across New York, London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks.
Representation has broadened in other areas, although significant gaps remain. Approximately 23 percent of working models identify as LGBTQ+, 18 percent are aged 30 or older, while only 14 percent of Fashion Week bookings go to models above a U.S. size six.
The annual Business of Fashion–McKinsey State of Fashion report found 46 percent of fashion executives expect industry conditions to worsen in 2026, with tariffs, changing consumer behaviour and rapid technological shifts ranking among their biggest concerns.
The report also noted that executives increasingly view adaptability and collaboration as essential for survival in an industry undergoing constant disruption.
Fashion relies heavily on that project-based economy, where photographers, makeup artists, hairstylists, stylists and models frequently assemble temporary teams around events rather than permanent employment.
For Shortte, that collaborative structure has become central to Halifax Fashion Week’s operation, but also the source of growing criticism.
Recent social media debate has centred on calls from The House of Soli seeking volunteer hairstylists, makeup artists and collaborators ahead of this year’s fashion week, prompting accusations that creative labour is being undervalued.
Shortte says those criticisms ignore how fashion events operate internationally and overlook the financial realities of staging professional runway productions.
The criticism, she says, reflects a misunderstanding of how fashion weeks operate around the world.
Whether in New York, London, Milan or Paris, Shortte says runway shows are not simply entertainment events.
“If you know the industry, you know that fashion shows are normally structured as trade shows,” she says, “your goal is to book a gig by marketing yourself at these events.”
Statistics Canada estimates 1.5 million Canadians completed gig work at some point during the previous year. “Artists need to look at these events as an exhibition, giving you a chance to showcase your work.
“Models, designers, artists, they go all over looking for opportunities to showcase. They’re travelling without any guarantee. They’re spending their money out of their pockets to go to casting calls across the globe.”
According to Shortte, the runway itself is rarely where creatives earn an income.
Instead, she says the exposure generated by professional photographs, media coverage and networking frequently leads to future commercial work.
“All creatives involved get the marketing material from the imagery of the fashion show so they can add to their portfolios and they can add to their resume.”
She says Halifax Fashion Week follows that same internationally recognized model.
While audiences see polished runways, professional lighting and sold-out audiences, Shortte says few understand the financial burden required to produce an event of that scale.
“My shows have been around the 80 to the 100k value to make it look good and I do that on a bare budget.”
“Last year it was $22,850 (and) something cents to light the fashion week.”
Although government funding helped offset part of that expense, Shortte says it covered only a portion of the production budget.
Halifax Fashion Week’s earliest financial backing came from Halifax Civic Events, where Billy Comer became the first external sponsor to support Shortte’s vision after the pandemic. She also credits the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, particularly Paul MacKinnon and Allana MacDonald-Mills, for becoming the organization’s first long-term funding partner and providing consistent support as the event expanded.
Funding also covers marketing campaigns, public relations, meals for volunteers and talent, photographers, technical crews, among other costs.
Despite leading the production, Shortte says she receives no personal income from the event; she says years of financing productions herself have taken both a financial and emotional toll.
“I’m losing my mental health, I’m losing my sanity when people disregard the value of what I’ve brought to the market. The hate on social media is coming from a sense of their biases where they will not give the same grace to a Black woman trying to do what she’s doing.”
Despite the criticism, Shortte says walking away has never been her objective.
Her goal, she says, has always been to expand opportunities as she is led by her faith in God.
“I never came into the market to become the only one. I came in to create a pathway so that other people who look like me would be confident and see themselves doing it.”
This year’s Halifax Fashion Week, running Aug. 8 to 15, marks the event’s fifth anniversary and arrives at a pivotal moment for Atlantic Canada’s fashion industry.
For Shortte, the runway has never been simply about fashion.
It is about creating opportunities where she says few previously existed, building a more representative industry in Atlantic Canada, and ensuring the next generation of designers, models and creatives inherit a space where they no longer have to build their own table just to have a seat.
