4Kinship Indigenous Futures 4Ever Runway Show Santa Fe Fashion, Hip Hop

“Everything is starting to interact here,” said Amy Denette Diehl, creator of the “Indigenous Futures 4Ever” fashion show, which took place Saturday night at the Santa Fe Railyard, where CFDA interim member Josh Tafoya and other performers and designers from the Southwestern U.S., Canada and Mexico showcased the best of the global Indigenous arts movement.

This fun-filled event, which combined runway, Native American hoop dancing, hip hop and spoken word, may teach fashion show producers a lesson or two. Performers included Tia Wood, whose single “Dirt Road” is about being a Cree singer finding her way in Los Angeles, environmental activist and hip hop singer Xiuhtezcati Martinez rapping with “Reservation Dogs” composer Mato Wayuhi, and Indigenous hip hop group Snotty Nose Lez Kids performing a new song, all of whom seamlessly blended into the runway show as models.

The event took place in the midst of the Southwest American Indian Arts Association’s 102nd annual Indian Market, held annually around the Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and featuring runway shows and events showcasing contemporary Native American fashion.

But Denet Deal, whose 4Kinship store is a platform for emerging native designers, wanted to create an alternative fashion festival and block party, sponsored by Shopify and Pinterest’s Build Native, with a stipend for all attendees.

“SWAIA will always be part of Santa Fe’s tradition because they’ve been here for 102 years, but there’s a lot of new things happening here. It’s becoming more of a South by Southwest vibe, and my event is based on that next generation,” says Denette Diehl, who was adopted into a white family and lived for decades without knowing her Diné heritage. After later discovering it, she turned from a corporate fashion career to reconnect with her roots and launched 4Kinship, which supports and sells Native fashion designers, as well as her own line of hand-dyed, upcycled military uniforms and vintage clothing.

Multicultural identity was a central theme for the designers and performers at Saturday’s event, including rising fashion star Tafoya.

The Taos, New Mexico-born designer presented his second collection inspired by his own complex identity: “This collection is about my family history and explores the concept of genizaros,” he said, referring to the name of Native Americans who were freed from tribes that inhabited the Spanish colonies of New Mexico and adjacent areas of the American Southwest between the 17th and 19th centuries.

The collection began with commercially minded buttoned-up looks like a chic marine stripe knit maxi dress that could be worn as long sleeves with a drawstring waist, and a striped denim shirtdress, before moving to a more punk rock vibe with a frayed cream woven biker jacket, cargo shorts with holes in the front, and separates with subtle blanket stripe slits. Tafoya closed with a series of incredibly sculptural ponchos made from overlapping layers of messy weave, feathers and fringe that would look right at home in a museum.

“It goes back to the Native American slave trade in New Spain, the creation of intermarriage, the transition to Mexican rule, then to American rule, and then this moment of repossession,” Tafoya said of her history. “The collection started with a more pre-colonial, clean sense… It went through deconstruction, roughing it up, folding it up, all these ‘What the hell is my culture?’ things. It’s a very dark history, but the collection is presented as a party to reclaim our history, our identity, our sense of indigenousness.”

Another message of the show was solidarity across borders, demonstrated by the representation of indigenous designers from the South (Mexico City-based Carla Fernandez worked with artisan groups from all over Mexico to create her stunning collection) and the North (a group of designers from Vancouver Fashion Week came to show in Santa Fe). This solidarity acknowledged the impact of colonial borders on indigenous groups around the world.

Denette Diehl saw Fernandez’s work at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market a few weeks ago and brought it to the runway. “She couldn’t get home to Santa Fe, so we styled everything. We’re talking about doing a fashion show for the IFA market as well. Everything’s growing,” she said of the fashion scene.

“I wish more people would do shows like this. It’s good to break down barriers and experiment a little,” says designer Alejandro Gutierrez, who grew up in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and whose Portland, Oregon-based Graziano & Gutierrez collection mixes textiles from Chiapas and Oaxaca with American workwear, creating a unique cross-cultural experience.

Coming from Vancouver, Canada, Snotty Nose Lez Kids singer Quinton “Young Tribez” has just launched his first streetwear collection, featuring great looking wide-leg leather and denim baggy shorts, zip-front jackets, “Stupid Idiot” t-shirts and skeleton-painted Dr. Martens.

“Every piece sold,” he says. “I’d never been to Santa Fe before, and it was a great experience. I’m originally from Mexico, so it was nice to be closer to home.”

The Railyard event featured Native fashion and jewelry pop-ups, food stands, skateboard demos and a merchandise stand by Snotty Nose Lez Kids, which drew crowds despite the scorching heat, all weekend long.

Entrepreneurship is important to Indigenous communities, said Kyle Brennan Shawinipinnes, a senior Indigenous entrepreneurial leader at Shopify, a sponsor of the event, and a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg First Nation. In 2021, Brennan founded the Shopify Build Native platform, which has digital community resources and storytelling spaces with about 2,000 members. The Build Native platform has helped build brands such as body care line Sister Sage from in-person sales to chain stores.

“I couldn’t find statistics for the US, but in Canada, Indigenous people are starting their own businesses at six times the average rate than non-Indigenous people. This is because when you’ve been ignored or excluded from the dominant economic system for so long, you sometimes have no choice but to start your own business. Sometimes people who start out as craftsmen or artisans realize that they could make this their full-time job, and that there’s a huge international audience on the internet for this work.”

On Friday, 4Kinship and Shopify hosted an Indigenous Fashion Summit, where several designers shared their varied experiences as creatives and entrepreneurs, as well as their ideas about taking a broader view of Indigenous design beyond obvious cultural references like geometric patterns. Like the fashion show, the summit was livestreamed so kids could watch it anytime, anywhere.

“Expressing who I am and where I come from gives meaning to my work,” says Tlingit jewelry designer Jennifer Younger, who employs traditional Formline design in gorgeous, modern pieces. “But what I sell is something that anyone can wear. I don’t sell clan pieces or clan emblems. It’s just my personal way of working.”

It’s not the same for everyone.

“My brand, Here’s to You, is not Native American specific or tribal specific,” says founder Hud O’Barry, a Brooklyn-based designer of Osage, Caddo and Comanche descent who creates art-inspired casualwear. “It’s about incorporating contemporary artists and convincing people that everyone is creative in some way.”

Evolution is the creative force that guides others.

“We want to represent our cultural heritage, but we must also remember to represent ourselves and who we have become,” designer Alejandro Gutierrez of Graziano & Gutierrez told the symposium.

Shopify’s Shàwinipinesì agreed: “It’s important not just to recreate something that existed in the past, but to take it forward and allow it to evolve and change over time. That’s living culture.”