SANTA FE, New Mexico — “I’d love to be the creative director of Alexander McQueen,” up-and-coming Plains Cree designer Jontay Calm said backstage after presenting his collection at the Southwest American Indian Arts Association fashion show on Sunday night. The runway was awash with rooster feathers, whimsical feathers and pony beads, a mix of ancient and avant-garde.
With Santa Fe becoming a major hub and the SWAIA runway becoming a premier showcase for designers who celebrate tradition and innovation, Calm’s dream may be becoming a reality as Indigenous designers begin to take their rightful place in the fashion conversation.
Calm, who will be the first Indigenous designer to graduate from Parsons’ MFA program next year, has already worked on costumes for Lily Gladstone. His second collection continued to highlight his ecstatic creativity and skill at constructing garments based on form, including Americana-inspired takes on red T-shirts and blue jeans, as well as draped, beaded and feather-filled separates. There were glamorous flocked diva dresses and coats that paid homage to celebrity icons like Marilyn Monroe, but also designs that paid homage to warrior costumes and the religious iconography of his own culture.
The designer, who was scouted by Parsons from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and draws inspiration from Iris van Herpen and Nick Cave’s Soundsuits, was one of many designers taking part in shows and events across the city over the weekend coinciding with the 102nd Indian Market.
John Ty Kam
Tyra Howard/WWD
On Thursday, Dine-born weaver Naiomi Glass debuted her third collection from Ralph Lauren’s artist-in-residence program at a nearly sold-out in-store event.
On Saturday, the “4Kinship Indigenous Futures 4Ever Fashion Show” at the Santa Fe Railroad Yards was a stunning cross-border runway exchange of clothes by Indo-Hispanic Chicano designer and weaver Josh Tafoya, Mexico City-based star Carla Fernandez and Oaxacan textile-fortified American workwear brand Graziano & Gutierrez, set to music by Haisla Nation hip-hop band Snotty Nose Lez Kids.
Josh Tafoya
Courtesy of Nate Lemuel of Darklisted Photography
Meanwhile, at the La Fonda Hotel’s Sovereign Art Showcase, Plains artist and designer Son of Picasso showed his punk rock-inspired Products of My Environment streetwear, which uses printmaking and rag techniques to express Native American pride.
A runway look from artist/designer Son of Picasso’s streetwear collection, “Product of My Environment.”
Photo credit
The expansion of the contemporary fashion celebration is thanks in large part to Siksika curator and art historian Amber Dawn Bear Loeb, who founded the SWAIA Fashion Show in 2014 and has grown it into North America’s premier event for premiering new collections by Indigenous designers, evolving it into Native American Fashion Week each May.
“My dream is for Indigenous designers to be part of the larger fashion community but still have their own unique perspective, because we don’t have homes to do featherwork or mousse tufting,” she said of the need to preserve these crafts, “and a big part of my work is fusing fashion and art.”
In fact, many of the designers who showed on the runway on Sunday excel at both, including the event’s biggest draw, Jamie Okuma, whose clothes have been known to sell out within minutes of going on the website. A successful beader and painter before launching her own label, Okuma is the first Native American designer invited to join the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2023.
Jamie Okuma
Tyra Howard/WWD
The Southern California-based designer of Luiseno, Shoshone-Bannock, Wailaki and Okinawan descent showed off a new collection on Sunday featuring stretchy bamboo cotton garments perfect for lounging or a night out, in neutral linens and peony florals that are always edgy and flattering. The pieces included a 1960s-inspired graphic tube dress and tights combo, a very rock ‘n’ roll pantsuit and a hand-painted suede jacket that showed off her artistry.
The bamboo cotton pieces are her first productions through a new deal with fashion tech company Resonance, and will be available at the end of September. “I make my samples in LA, send them to New York, and then assemble them on a platform in New York. It’s all made in the Dominican Republic and it’s all natural,” she said of the business development, which she said will allow her to scale more easily.
North Dakota-based Arikara, Hidatsa, Blackfoot and Cree ledger and beadwork artist Lauren Good Day has a thriving direct-sales business selling printed men’s and women’s clothing, accessories and leather handbags, and is looking for a wholesale partner. “I started doing ready-to-wear because I wanted to make my art accessible,” she said of her pieces, which are priced under $300.
Amber Midthunder dressed by Lauren Good Day
Tyra Howard/WWD
On the runway, her new collection highlighted the beauty of the Plains through paintings of buffalo, butterflies, horses and morning stars, and ranged from bohemian dresses to T-shirt dresses to stunning skirts and jackets in beadwork-inspired prints. “I want to make my designs accessible to local people,” she said of her motivation for starting a ready-to-wear line.
Her booth at the Indian Market was packed both days, and her creations were worn throughout Santa Fe. “I have a lot of support from the local community,” she said, noting that her runway models included people of Native American background, including artist Niomi Glass, Cree and Salish singer Tia Wood and actress Amber Midthunder. “I want to make sure our people are represented, regardless of where they come from.”
Wherever they are, Good Day was one of four Indigenous designers who traveled to Paris in January for Pharrell Williams’ inclusive, Western-themed Louis Vuitton men’s show. She was invited by key collaborator Dee Jay TwoBears, who has worked with Williams for years. “He brought the community along — singers, dancers, artists. Indigenous people could see high fashion and express themselves. It’s always so important to bring the community along with you, with the community in mind.”
At a paid fashion event at the Santa Fe Convention Centre, Canadian Indigenous artist Kent Monkman spoke about his work as his alter-ego Miss Chief and how he uses fashion in his paintings about Indigenous resilience. The runway show also featured a collection by contemporary Anishinaabe artist Caroline Monette, who used industrial building materials, and a collection by ASEP Designs that featured computer-generated jewellery on clothing. Selected looks from Balmain’s fall collection were brought from Paris by a representative for the brand with ties to Santa Fe who was “blown away” by last year’s show.
Caroline Monette
Tyra Howard/WWD
There was also a pop-up shop in the lobby, which moved Tierra Alicia to tears on Sunday afternoon.
Designer Kasia Pomo, a graduate of Central Saint Martins in London, had just sold four hand-beaded silk-cashmere long coats at her Vividus runway collection. “I made over $50,000,” she said of the intricate, one-of-a-kind pieces that referenced traditional natural elements and symbols from various tribes. She showed a runway show at Indigenous Fashion Week in May, which was her first successful Indian market.
“I’m used to being the only Native girl in school and it feels weird sometimes, but here we’re like the ‘it’ girls and it’s really cool,” she says. “We’re the latest trend. For the first time, people are paying attention to us and valuing us.”