Showcasing Authentically American Style
Visuals and Text by Simbarashe Cha
May 16, 2024
The event, new this year, included runway shows, panel discussions, pop-up shops and, of course, parties. It was put on by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, the longtime organizer of the Indian Market, a popular showcase of Indigenous-made goods in Santa Fe.
The style outside and inside the city’s Community Convention Center, where much of Native Fashion Week took place, reflected the diversity of its participants — a group with a growing presence in the American fashion industry.
Tyler Tarbon Lansing, 35, who is Diné, as the Navajo refer to themselves.
Several Native Fashion Week attendees wore clothes, hats and jewelry that they had made themselves. Others wore garments by makers like Storme Webber, a Black-Indigenous artist in Seattle.
Quincey Young Poersch, left, and her twin sister, Sophia Sampson Poersch, both 23. They are Lumbee, a tribe in North Carolina.
The outfits in the crowds incorporated all sorts of eye-catching garments. Some, like patchwork coats and patterned skirts, stood out for their bold motifs in vibrant colors.
Neebinnaukzhik Southall, 34, who comes from the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, a community in Ontario, Canada.
Sarain Fox, 36, who is Canadian Anishinaabe.
Many runway shows at Native Fashion Week, like those at fashion weeks in New York and Europe, incorporated live music and other types of performance. Much of it involved traditional singing, chanting and dancing. These aspects further highlighted the cultures that informed the clothes being shown.
Edwin Felter, whose ancestry is Nambe Pueblo, performed a chant during the Chizhii runway show.
Seventeen runway shows took place at the convention center during Native Fashion Week, which was held from May 2 to May 5. About 2,000 people attended, according to organizers, as well as camera crews from television networks like PBS. On certain days during the event, the venue was standing-room only.
Models at Native Fashion Week represented a range of ages, genders and body types. Their diversity displayed inclusivity, something other fashion weeks around the world have often struggled to achieve.
Among the collections shown on the runway were a line of evening wear by the Anishinaabe designer Lesley Hampton and a disco-themed line by House of Sutai, whose designer, Peshawn Bread, is Comanche, Kiowa and Cherokee.
Randy Leigh Barton, a multidisciplinary Navajo artist whose work was featured at Super Bowl LVII in 2023, also showed a collection of pieces that featured painterly and other graphic prints.
Randy Leigh Barton, a multidisciplinary Navajo artist whose work was featured at Super Bowl LVII in 2023, also showed a collection of pieces that featured painterly and other graphic prints.
Some Native Fashion Week participants skipped runway shows and instead displayed their clothes and accessories at tables and booths where guests could buy items as well.
Certain brands — like Products of My Environment, a label by a designer of Kiowa, Diné and Taos Pueblo descent that was showcasing a collection of denim pieces — evoked the feel of a fashion show by enlisting models to mingle about while dressed in their clothes.
Certain brands — like Products of My Environment, a label by a designer of Kiowa, Diné and Taos Pueblo descent that was showcasing a collection of denim pieces — evoked the feel of a fashion show by enlisting models to mingle about while dressed in their clothes.
Though people at Native Fashion Week were dressed to impress, there seemed to be fewer peacocks — those types who obviously dress for attention — than there are at other fashion weeks.
A defining characteristic of many outfits were the various accessories — turquoise-embellished hats and belts, intricately beaded necklace, clam-shell earrings — that gave ensembles a more personal touch.
A defining characteristic of many outfits were the various accessories — turquoise-embellished hats and belts, intricately beaded necklace, clam-shell earrings — that gave ensembles a more personal touch.
Shawndell Oliver, 60, who is Cherokee.
Robert J.G. Allan, 29, who is Diné and Anishinaabe.
Ayona Lovelady, left, 21, who is Lakota Sioux, and Gladys NohNah Martin, 19, who is Potawatomi and Ojibwe.
Kellen Trenal, 36, who is Nez Perce and Black.
While Native Fashion Week was taking place, there were satellite events like a hybrid fashion show and performance hosted by 4Kinship, a clothing and lifestyle brand in Santa Fe. Its more artistic elements included a spoken-word performance in English and nimipuutímt, a Nez Perce language, and musical performances involving traditional instruments.
E. Esperanza, 32, who is Zapotec and Mixtec, two communities native to Mexico, played an original song on the drone flute.
Designers who showed collections at the 4Kinship event included Josh Tafoya, whose clothes are influenced by his Genizaro-Chicano heritage, and Two Smudge, a label founded by Matthew Provost, a Blackfoot maker who specializes in beadwork and leatherwork.
Amy Denet Deal, 59, a Diné designer and the founder of 4Kinship, said that she hoped her brand’s Native Fashion Week event would spotlight many forms of Indigenous creativity and “break down the so-called borders that have kept indigenous communities apart.”
“I don’t want to create a vertical platform for our brand,” she said, “but rather a horizontal platform for the emerging creatives that will carry our ancestors’ wildest dreams into the future.”
“I don’t want to create a vertical platform for our brand,” she said, “but rather a horizontal platform for the emerging creatives that will carry our ancestors’ wildest dreams into the future.”
Ms. Denet Deal of 4Kinship.
Grace Lee, 33, who is Tibetan, Korean and Yup’ik, an Inuit community.
Jock Soto, a ballet instructor in his 50s, who formerly danced with companies including the New York City Ballet. He is Navajo and Puerto Rican.
Simbarashe Cha wrote the text and made these photographs and videos for Style Outside, a visual column that explores street style around the world.
Produced by Christy Harmon and Anthony Rotunno
Produced by Christy Harmon and Anthony Rotunno