Fashionable INNOVATION

Models strut the catwalk in designs by Native artists for Indian Market’s Haute Couture Fashion show.

In five years, the Indian Market Haute Couture Fashion Show has grown into one of the most anticipated events of the weekend. This year’s participating designers include Adrian Standing Elk Pinnecoose, Pam Baker, Sho Sho Esquiro, Jamie Okuma, Maya Stewart, Yolanda Skelton, Decontie & Brown and Cody Sanderson, who will be launching his first line of clothing at the show.

With his innovative Transcendence collection, Pinnecoose uses three-dimensional printing and laser cutting to create complex pieces that draw upon the ideology of traditional Navajo textiles. “I wanted to push my creative process toward innovation in the realm of digital applications,” he says. “Yes, I may be using nontraditional techniques, but my identity my cultural are intertwined into my process of who I am as an artists and a designer.”

Stewart’s collection is a collaboration with The Fife Collection, a design company established by her aunts Phyllis Fife, Sandy Fife Wilson and Sharon Mouss. “The clothing and accessories combine The Fife Collection’s blend of ancient patterns and modern lines with my brand’s international rock ’n’ roll aesthetic,” she says. “We are looking forward to presenting our collaboration at this year’s fashion show. It emphasizes Indigenous nations as part of contemporary global society, not just now but throughout history and into the future.”

This will be the first year the show takes place on Sunday. “It just gives more breathing room for the designers who have booths at Indian Market,” explains fashion show producer Amber Dawn Bear Robe. It will also be the first time VIP tickets are available, guaranteeing viewers a front row seat and the opportunity to mix and mingle with models and designers at the after party.

“This is a fabulous platform where the artist’s aren’t limited by the traditional expectations about what Native art is,” Bear Robe says of the event. “With the designers and models and hair and makeup, it’s a huge production and it keeps getting bigger every year. It’s really a fun, eclectic, energetic high fashion show.”