Find out which Native designers are coming to fashion week in Santa Fe
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Beginning on Wednesday, May 7, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts will host its second annual SWAIA Native Fashion Week (SNFW), featuring Indigenous designers from across North America.
The fashion curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation) teamed up with SWAIA to launch SNFW last year, and this year鈥檚 event is being organized by the association鈥檚 executive director, Jamie Schulze (Northern Cheyenne/Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), in partnership with Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week in Canada.
Bear Robe, meanwhile, is producing an independent event, Native Fashion Week (NFW) at the Santa Fe Railyard, starting Thursday, May 8.
Organizers of both fashion weeks emphasize that the two events will complement each other, drawing larger audiences than either organization could achieve separately. They expect that additional satellite events may pop up in coming years, as well.
鈥淭he more the merrier,鈥� Bear Robe said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what fashion weeks are about 鈥� to expand over the whole city.鈥�
She cited the example of New York Fashion Week, which includes numerous simultaneous 鈥渇ashion weeks鈥� produced by independent organizations, in addition to the official schedule organized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).
鈥淲e would eventually like to expand fashion week to have runway shows on Canyon Road, as well as the (Santa Fe) Botanical Garden and the Scottish Rite (Masonic) Temple, to have runway shows city-wide,鈥� Bear Robe said.
鈥淭he plan is to get the fashion industry to come here,鈥� she added.
That鈥檚 already starting to happen. The president and CEO of CFDA, Steven Kolb, is flying to Santa Fe this year to participate in an NFW panel discussion alongside the Indigenous artist and designer Jamie Okuma (Luise帽o, Wailaki, Okinawan, and Shoshone-Bannock).
鈥淭hat鈥檚 huge,鈥� Bear Robe said.
Another panel will feature Ashley Callingbull (Cree), the first Indigenous model to be crowned Miss Universe Canada in 2024.
鈥淚ndigenous fashion has been my world, my drive, my passion and my vision for decades,鈥� Bear Robe said.
She has been organizing fashion-related events, including museum exhibitions and runway shows in Santa Fe since moving to the area in 2012, including multiple collaborations with the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.
Bear Robe champions a wide range of Indigenous design, from streetwear to haute couture, and from pioneering figures to the latest emerging designers. But even as public awareness of Indigenous fashion continues to grow, she finds that many people still hold a narrow view of what they expect it to look like.
鈥淚t鈥檚 beyond buckskin, beads and leather,鈥� Bear Robe said. 鈥淲ith diverse designers coming from across this vast country of America, as well as Canada, they have very different influences, backgrounds and Indigenous knowledge and land knowledge that鈥檚 going to be informing how they express themselves.鈥�
鈥淭hen, you have some designers who work with unconventional materials to express very conceptual ideas,鈥� she continued. 鈥淪omeone may look at it and ask, 鈥楬ow is this Native?鈥� Well, it鈥檚 Native because a Native designer produced it. It doesn鈥檛 need to fall into a pigeonholed idea of what Native fashion needs to look like.鈥�
SACRD THNDR By Alex Minitopyes Nehiyaw-Anishinaabe
One of the least traditional designers participating in NFW is Alex Manitopyes of SACRD THNDR.
鈥淚鈥檓 showing 鈥楴eon Blood,鈥� which is a fierce, tech-forward collection that merges protest and luxury,鈥� Manitopyes said. 鈥淎t the center are black leather LED bags with strobing, colorful lights. The accessories are just as loud 鈥� oversized earrings and bolo ties in neon acrylic, featuring bold icons like lightning bolts, snakes and sharp statements. This collection is made to shake up things.鈥�
Manitopyes鈥� fashion is rooted in their own identity.
鈥淎s a nonbinary Nehiyaw-Anishinaabe designer, my work is about reclaiming space and challenging colonial systems,鈥� they said. 鈥淚 design to honor the ones before me and protect the ones coming next. It鈥檚 about activism expressed through art, because rage is sacred.鈥�
鈥淔ashion can be sacred and dangerous at the same time,鈥� they continued. 鈥溾�楴eon Blood鈥� is for the ones who know their power, speak their truth and wear it like warpaint.鈥�
Manitopyes said Native Fashion Week is important 鈥渂ecause we need more stages that center us, not tokenize us.鈥�
鈥淣ative Fashion Week is more than a showcase 鈥� it鈥檚 a space of art, innovation and power. It allows Indigenous artists to create narratives, celebrate our gifts and build a future.鈥�
T.O.C. Legends House of Design By Himikalas Pam Baker Squamish, Kwakwaka鈥檞akw
Several designers are participating in both SNFW and NFW, debuting two unique collections in the same weekend. One of these designers is Himikalas Pam Baker.
Baker鈥檚 brand T.O.C. Legends House of Design fuses Indigenous craft traditions with classic Hollywood glamor, and it鈥檚 become one of the most globally recognized names in Indigenous fashion design. T.O.C. stands for Touch of Culture.
鈥淔or SWAIA, I will be showcasing the 鈥楴obility鈥� collection, which will be referencing the story of my great-great-grandmother,鈥� Baker said. 鈥淭he other collection (for NFW) is called 鈥楾he Undersea Kingdom,鈥� and that references my mother鈥檚 family from the northwest coast of Vancouver Island. So, I鈥檝e done a lot of hand dying and screening on the pieces of images of starfish and killer whales, who are messengers.鈥�
Baker works with a small team, including a cousin who does most of her beadwork and embroidery.
鈥淚 do all the dying and printing and designing myself,鈥� Baker said.
When Baker founded T.O.C. Legends in 1988, there were 鈥渙nly a handful of serious First Nations designers in Canada,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut now, social media has been able to uplift everyone.鈥�
Despite being, in her words, 鈥渙ne of the OG designers,鈥� Baker is constantly experimenting with new materials and techniques, including sublimation printing on sequins and making complex patterns with laser cutting.
鈥淥ne thing I like to do is to stay up-to-date and attempt new techniques every year,鈥� Baker said.
Products of My Environment By The Son of Picasso Kiowa
Products of My Environment is a brand by sa国际传媒官网网页入口 designer The Son of Picasso, who stopped using his 鈥済overnment name,鈥� Ben Nelson, in 1995. For 10 years, he went by Ahn-Hia-Ohm, his Kiowa name, but he has been using the nom-de-plume The Son of Picasso for two decades.
鈥淚 use my self-identifying name as a teaching tool to bring light to Native erasure and forced assimilation,鈥� he said.
The Son of Picasso launched Products of My Environment six years ago. He鈥檇 had a decadeslong painting career prior to that and saw fashion as a way to expand his artistic vision into three dimensions.
鈥淚nstead of just going into the classic idea of sculpture, I went into human anatomy and real-life sculpture,鈥� he said.
Products of My Environment draws on streetwear influences from the artist鈥檚 youth.
鈥淚 was born and raised in the 鈥榳ar zone鈥� (sa国际传媒官网网页入口鈥檚 International District) in the 1980s and 鈥�90s, when sneaker culture was at its height,鈥� he said.
He felt that other Indigenous streetwear designers sometimes lacked 鈥渞ealness.鈥�
鈥淏eing actually from the street, I can look at someone and tell they鈥檙e not from where I鈥檓 from. So, for them to step into that arena and pretend (that they are), it鈥檚 a slap in the face.鈥�
He uses Products of My Environment to tell authentic stories, rooted in his own lived experience.
Randi Nelson Designs By Randi Nelson Bonaparte/St鈥檜xwt茅ws First Nation
Randi Nelson鈥檚 runway-ready looks have appeared at the Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival, and she has been awarded Best in Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market.
鈥淢y work focuses on Indigenous materials of wealth,鈥� she said.
Materials such as trout leather, porcupine quills, abalone and dentalium shells are every bit as difficult to obtain and prepare as silks, ostrich feathers and other materials which European designers have traditionally regarded as luxurious. And, in some cases, they have an even longer history of use as luxury materials.
鈥淒entalium shells have been traded between our people. They were used as currency and then stitched to clothing to show wealth and status within a community,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o, these materials belong on a runway just as much as silk does.鈥�
Nelson lives in a remote part of Yukon, Canada. 鈥淭here鈥檚 more moose than people here,鈥� she said.
Spending time with local flora and fauna inspires much of her work, along with connecting with local Indigenous communities who maintain sustainable relationships to the land.
Nelson鈥檚 NFW collection this year focuses on furs, which have been sustainably harvested and prepared by Indigenous trappers and artisans from Yukon.
鈥淚 try to source all my materials from Indigenous artisans and creators, and I support different families throughout Turtle Island for my practice,鈥� Nelson said. 鈥淭he furs and hides that I use come from animals that can often feed a family. It鈥檚 not just hunting for the fur or the hide. It鈥檚 a practice that鈥檚 honoring all of the animal and using all of the animal.鈥�
Original Landlords By Jeremy Arviso Din茅, Hopi, Akimel O鈥檕dham and Tohono O鈥檕dham
Jeremy Arviso began his creative life as a graffiti artist with passionate but somewhat unfocused energy.
鈥淚 was a really angry 17-year-old,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 was doing a lot of self-education, reading books and just trying to figure out more about being a Native American, because they didn鈥檛 teach us s--- in high school.鈥�
He said he even wrote a letter to activist Leonard Peltier. But Arviso鈥檚 admirable activist inclinations and desire to express himself politically through art were counteracted, he said, by self-destructive habits, which took him many years to overcome.
鈥淭he world of fashion saved me,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ecause I鈥檓 able to translate those experiences into something that people can see walk across the stage.鈥�
Original Landlords is known for its clever political symbolism, including the Original Landlords logo itself, a take on Ralph Lauren鈥檚 polo player, but with a tomahawk instead of a polo stick.
鈥淪ometimes the work is subliminal, with double and triple meanings,鈥� he said.
While Arviso鈥檚 work still has a subversive, rebellious quality, he鈥檚 focusing more on joy these days than anger.
鈥淭he collection that I鈥檓 bringing to the stage in a few weeks is a very bright and vibrant one,鈥� Arviso said. 鈥淚鈥檓 taking it back to the mid-鈥�90s when I was really into East Coast hip-hop, and I was going to these underground warehouse raves in downtown Phoenix.鈥�
Margaret Roach Wheeler Chickasaw, Choctaw
In conjunction with Bear Robe鈥檚 Native Fashion Week, the gallery Zane Bennett Contemporary Art is presenting an exhibition that gallery director Carina Evangelista calls a 鈥渕ini retrospective鈥� of work by Indigenous fiber artist Margaret Roach Wheeler.
Wheeler, who was born in 1943, founded the first tribally owned textile company in the United States, Mahota Textiles, in 1984, naming it after her great-great-great-grandmother who was forcibly removed from Mississippi to Indian Territory in 1844.
Wheeler鈥檚 new exhibition, titled 鈥淪ummer Winter,鈥� includes hand-woven garments from her acclaimed 鈥淪pirit Animals鈥� series, which incorporate narrative elements from Chickasaw stories about owls, crows, bears, wolves and other animal guides. Wheeler considers them wearable art.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been interested in nature and animals,鈥� Wheeler said, 鈥渁nd Native Americans always have spirit animals.鈥�
As a child of four, Wheeler loved exploring the woods of Montana with her brother, who used to tell her that elves and fairies lived in the base of the trees.
鈥淚 spent hours in the woods making up stories, looking at things, playing with acorns and dirt and making mud pies,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd that influenced me. I know when I did my graduate research, I recreated that tree. It was an environment that you walk into and you went into the base of the tree. I had a mattress in there and a big weaving on the back wall, which was my imaginative interpretation of what was inside of that tree.鈥�
At the same time that she was exploring nature, Wheeler was also seeing Works Progress Administration murals by Indigenous artists, which is partly what inspired her to become an artist. By junior high, she was already painting and selling original works of art.
Wheeler has retained close ties to the natural world throughout her career, not only through her animal imagery but also in terms of her materials. And Evangelista has highlighted this aspect of her practice by including a shelf of Wheeler鈥檚 hand-dyed yarns.
鈥淪he has been foraging the mushrooms, the elm bark and the lichen with which she dyes her yarn,鈥� Evangelista said.
Wheeler turned to weaving in the mid-1970s while in grad school at Pittsburg State University.
鈥淎 lot of my friends, when I turned to weaving, told me I was crazy,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey said it was a craft, and it wasn鈥檛 going anywhere.鈥�
Since then, Wheeler has witnessed a sea change in the art world鈥檚 attitudes toward textile and fiber-based art, as well as the fashion world鈥檚 growing appreciation of Indigenous art. Wheeler鈥檚 work has been exhibited at top-tier institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and the Smithsonian Institution鈥檚 National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
