Native fashion pushes forward
PUSHES FORWARD
Despite the difficulties of the pandemic, Native fashion is unstoppable. Designers and artists continue to release highly anticipated collections, Native fashion reaches a broad audience across multiple platforms — nationally and internationally — and here in Santa Fe, the city is teeming with activity. Our present and future are alive with beauty and possibility.
All eyes on Indigenous fashion
Newly appointed U.S. secretary of the interior and former congressional representative Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) has brought Indigenous style to the national stage. Not only did she honor her homelands by proudly wearing a Pueblo manta and moccasins for her swearing-in ceremony for the House of Representatives in 2019, but she has also shown intertribal solidarity by wearing attire and accessories from across the continent, including an appliquéd ribbon skirt by Agnes Woodward (Plains Cree) at her Department of Interior swearing-in ceremony in March.
In an August cover article, InStyle magazine featured Haaland wearing work by Native designers, jewelers and other artists. The designers included Woodward as well as Hollis Chitto (Mississippi Choctaw/Laguna/Isleta), Tiffany Vanderhoop (Haida/Aquinnah Wampanoag), Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa), Jamie Okuma (Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock), Curtis Oland (Lílwat), Rainy Dawn Ortiz (Acoma/Muscogee), Catherine Blackburn (Dene), Elias Jade Not Afraid (Apsáalooke), Lauren Good Day (Arikara/Hidatsa/Blackfeet/Plains Cree) and Warren Steven Scott (Nlaka’pamux). The article also showcased jewelry by Mike Bird-Romero (Ohkay Owingeh/Taos) and items from
Haaland’s own collection, such as a handwoven Pueblo belt, a ceremonial shawl, moccasins and jewelry. Christian Allaire (Nipissing Ojibwe) spotlighted Native artists and designers in Vogue’s February 2021 issue. His roundup article “The United States of Fashion” included Elias Jade Not Afraid; Keri Ataumbi; Jamie Okuma and her mother, Sandra Okuma (Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock); and Ginew, a denim company run by Erik Brodt (Minnesota Ojibwe) and Amanda Bruegl (Oneida Nation/Stockbridge Munsee). Vogue is expanding the project into a book, The United States of Fashion: A New Atlas of American Style, which will include writing by Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe). Allaire just released his own book for young readers, The Power of Style: How Fashion and Beauty Are Being Used to Reclaim Cultures (Annick Press). The book cover features a model bedecked in accessories by Jamie and Sandra Okuma and pays special attention to ribbonwork.
Indigenous-made and -designed accessories also figure significantly in the sitcom Rutherford Falls, released in April 2021 via NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock. Notably, the show features major Native American characters. In promotional images for the show, the fictional Reagan Wells, played by Jana Schmieding (Cheyenne River Lakota), wears a scarf by Jamie Okuma and a beaded cuff by Sandra Okuma. (See story on page 74 for more information.)
On the runway
Amid these broader developments, Santa Fe continues to be a hub for intertribal and international Native fashion and style. Last year, Santa Fe Indian Market went virtual, with a series of videos highlighting designers from the 2019 fashion show and spotlighting Skawennati (Mohawk), Catherine Blackburn, Sage Paul (Dene), Delina White (Minnesota Chippewa) and Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo). Orlando Dugi (Navajo) was the primary featured designer, releasing his 2020 capsule collection in a live-streamed fashion show for members of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA).
This year, Indigenous fashion returns to the runway in full splendor. Fashion show producer Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika) shares that SWAIA is teaming up with Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week to produce two ticketed fashion events at Indian Market, both held at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. They also intend to explore developing a future Santa Fe Indigenous Fashion Week. The new Canada-based Supernaturals Modelling, an Indigenous agency co-founded by Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week founder Joleen Mitton Ward (Plains Cree/ Blackfoot) and Patrick Shannon (Haida), provides several models for the fashion shows at Santa Fe Indian Market.
On Saturday, Aug. 21, from 6 to 9 p.m., the SWAIA Gala Reception features a fashion show and a silent auction. There,
Yolonda Skelton (Gitxsan) from British Columbia presents 20 looks. Delina White of I Am Anishinaabe also shows 20 looks, worn by at least one two-spirit model. Loren Aragon (Acoma) and Valentina Aragon (Navajo), the husband-and-wife team behind ACONAV, showcase eight new designs. (See profile of Loren Aragon on page 92.) On Sunday, Aug. 22, the Indigenous Fashion Show features a VIP pre-party from 1:30 to 3 p.m., the show itself from 3 to 4 p.m. and a trunk show from 4 to 5 p.m., when attendees can buy directly from the designers.
The Indigenous Fashion Show includes previously featured designers Jamie Okuma, Orlando Dugi and Pamela Baker (Squamish/Kwakwaka’wakw/Tlingit/Haida), as well as newcomer Lauren Good Day, showcasing 18 to 20 looks each. Baker and Good Day also have booths at Santa Fe Indian Market. Twospirit celebrity and award-winning basket maker Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy) walks for Okuma, along with Navajo fashionista and powerlifting sensation Monica Chaffin, who holds New Mexico state records. Celebrating 10 years of fashion design, Dugi showcases top looks from past seasons and several new pieces, including a sparkly beaded pink halter-style dress made from silk chiffon. He is currently working on his first tailored silk suit. An embroidery design on the back of the jacket was inspired by his dream of a visiting elk speaking in ancient Navajo. He also shows a small collection of ready-to-wear pieces, including shorts and pants, as well as tops featuring the beaded words “Hózhó” and “Nizhoní,” created in collaboration with a team of seamstresses and a beading house.
SWAIA fashion show newcomer Lauren Good Day
Just after giving birth to her third child, Lauren Good Day was busy working on her summer and fall collections. The latter debuts on the SWAIA Indian Market runway. The first looks on the catwalk are handmade couture dresses, followed by ready-to-wear dresses and separates — such as tops, wraps and skirts — and unisex T-shirts, as well as a collection of 100 percent silk scarves.
Good Day made powwow regalia before venturing into readymade fashion. She recalls, “Any artist’s work reflects who they are and how they were raised. My work, it’s always heavily culturally based, since that’s how I live my life. I grew up in a really culturally
based family, going to ceremonies, our celebrations and powwows.”
She noticed as a teenager that there weren’t many Native people wearing Native clothing in everyday life. Wanting to show pride in her culture, she began making and wearing ribbon skirts inspired by ribbon dresses, which “were usually made of wool or sateen, and the tops would have cowrie shells, and the bottoms would be all ribbons.”
Good Day has been a market artist for many years and a longtime participant in SWAIA’s Native American clothing contest. In 2011 her men’s regalia set, with a heavily beaded vest and cuffs, won first place in the traditional division.
Since Good Day launched her first ready-to-wear collection in 2019, her designs have proven popular throughout Indian Country. “I’m always just so overwhelmed with joy and happiness whenever I launch a collection and it does really well,” she enthuses. Affordability and access are why she creates readyto-wear fashion. An original pair of moccasins or a pipe bag can be expensive, but she can share her fabric prints with a broader audience to promote Native cultural arts. She enjoys creating ready-to-wear dresses, tops and scarves “because they are based on who I am as a person and the communities that I come from.” Her fall collection is richly informed by her Northern Plains culture, with fabric print patterns based on her original ledger art and beadwork.
“All of my collections are very colorful, really bright and vibrant. That’s what I’m really attracted to. It kind of goes along with the
way that my ancestors were,” she says. “Once we had access to beads, we used them in as many colors as we could. Once we had access to the colored pencils or the crayons that we use for ledger art, we made sure to incorporate those. Expect a lot of color.”
At the Hunting Moon Pow Wow in Wisconsin, after her work was first released, Good Day saw “a woman wearing a wrap that I had created. It was so cool seeing it.” She notes that “non-Native people . . . ask all the time, ‘Is it OK that I wear this?’ But I think it’s really good, because you’re seeing non-Native people wear pieces of the clothing, and that’s cultural appreciation. It’s neat to see Natives and non-Native people wear my clothing.”
Good Day’s summer ready-to-wear line is also for sale at SWAIA’s Indigenous Fashion Trunk Show, following the Sunday fashion show. Inspired by strength and femininity, this collection showcases pinks and pastels and includes a beadwork print based on a very personal connection. “I’m using the pattern from my daughter’s cradle, with the butterflies, because her name is Sawiitakaa, which means butterfly,” explains Good Day. The butterfly is culturally connected to power from the Thunder Beings. “When I was creating the cradle and I was beading it, there were prayers for my daughter and how I want her to grow up — to be strong but yet feminine and kindhearted.”
More styling around Santa Fe
Besides the booths and fashion shows at Santa Fe Indian Market, fashionistas and collectors have many other venues to peruse when it comes to wearable art in Santa Fe and surrounding areas. Troi Lynn Whitethorne (Navajo/Hopi) presents the 2021 Free Indian Art Market Fashion Show in Federal Park, at Federal Place and Washington Avenue, at 11 a.m. on Aug. 21 and 22. Designers include Suzanne Marie (Santa Clara Pueblo/ Cochiti Pueblo), who creates customary Pueblo reverse embroidery and openwork crocheted leggings, as well as Jennifer James (Navajo), Cynthia Trujillo (Navajo), Shannon Tallsalt (Navajo), Marian Mike (Navajo), Mae Mallahan (Navajo), Lisa C. Redford (Hidatsa/Eastern Cherokee/ Chickasaw), Norma Flying Horse (Hidatsa/ Dakota/Assiniboine), House of Whitehorse (Navajo), Belinda Bullshoe (Blackfeet) and Rayshawn Vigil (Navajo/Apache). The designers also have booths at Free Indian Market, as do superstar designers Dorothy Grant (Haida) and Patricia Michaels.
Pathways Native Arts Festival, organized by the Poeh Cultural Center at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino, showcases 500plus artists. More than 20 of them sell wearable works, including moccasins, sashes, dresses and screen-printed T-shirts. One is Ramona Morrow (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe/Dakota) of Hayward, Wisconsin, who shows beads, moccasins, collars and bandolier bags.
The 2021 Institute of American Indian Arts Recent Graduate Art Market, held on the portal of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), showcases several artists making clothing and accessories, such as rising Yup’ik creative genius Golga Oscar.
See you in Santa Fe, styling in Native fashion.