Article | Maya Stewart in the Oklahoman

Designer from Oklahoma finds fashion-world success
McClain County woman uses small-town, American Indian influences to craft fine handbags
BY LINDA MILLER
The Oklahoman
Published: March 4, 2010

Many fashion designers work for years without receiving the recognition that has come to Maya Stewart, who grew up in an Oklahoma town with a population of about 600.

She designed a collection of handbags for designer Mike Vensel’s runway show in Los Angeles last fall and had three bags in his recent New York fashion show. She showed her handbags in the inaugural UNRESERVED Designer Collective during New York Fashion Week in February.

What’s impressive is that Stewart, 30, is still in school, completing her final year in the honors program at London College of Fashion. She’ll graduate in June with a degree in Cordwainers Accessory Design. A cordwainer is someone who makes shoes or handbags from fine, soft leather.

Juggling fashion shows and events in America while still in school in England adds an ocean of stress, but Stewart knows such opportunities shouldn’t be wasted. "I was ecstatic and honored to participate in the UNRESERVED Designer Collective,” she said in an e-mail interview. "It was a dream come true.”

UNRESEVED Alliance nurtures new American Indian talent, helping to expand career options and create new paths for future generations. Stewart, a member of the Chickasaw, Muscogee and Choctaw tribes, said she met co-founder Gail Bruce at the Santa Fe Indian Market in New Mexico last year. She sent Bruce information on school design awards and photos of her collection.

Bruce was impressed not only with Stewart, who hails from Washington in McClain County, but with her talent and the way she uses modern luxury materials with ancient techniques.
"She asked me to participate as the handbag designer for the upcoming show,” Stewart said. "As you could imagine, I was absolutely thrilled.”

Stewart had six handbags on display at the showing in New York, which attracted a throng of retailers and fashion press. Five pieces were delayed due to a blizzard, but they arrived in time for a trunk show and cocktail party. The bags and accessories grabbed attention. Response has been amazing, she said.

Fashion always has intrigued Stewart. "I was raised by an artistic family who is well respected in the Native American art world. I began designing with my mother, Jimmie Carole Fife Stewart, at a very early age and was greatly influenced by my family and their historical significance. I decided to focus on handbag design seven years ago.”

Her path to fashion has taken her on an interesting ride, from working in fashion public relations in Beverly Hills to an internship for designer Matthew Williamson in London. Every step has been beneficial in getting her to where she is today.

The name of her handbag brand, Crazy Snake Rebellion, speaks to Stewart’s ideas and inspiration. Crazy Snake was a Creek tribal rights activist in the early 20th century who resisted assimilation into the mainstream. As a young artist in the 21st century, Stewart said she considers him the inspiration for the natural strength and aesthetic independence in her art.

"My design objective is to resist the ordinary and ignore the conventional path to creativity. Crazy Snake Rebellion pays tribute to American Indian cultures and themes. It focuses on the geometric shapes constant throughout the Creek, Chickasaw, Navajo, Plains, Pomo and Seminole tribal motifs. As a member of the Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Choctaw tribes, I have a unique point of view in fashion,” she said.

"I want everyone to be aware of the beauty of my culture. I have introduced geometrical designs inspired by American Indian weavings, pottery, moccasins, patchwork and baskets to a new generation in the form of detailed patchwork handbags.”

Because her mother is an artist, Stewart has been immersed in diverse art techniques all her life. "I want my accessories to reflect these techniques.”

While many designers look for the cheapest or easiest approach to manufacturing, it’s fitting that the young designer chooses to use the skills and knowledge of American Indian artisans to bring the handbags from the drawing board to completed product.

"This will allow for quality and authenticity of the product as well as provide valuable work for the American Indian community,” Stewart said. "Each collection will be hand made by individuals who, collectively, have hundreds of years of experience in the very complex and delicate detailed stitching techniques.” A stamped leather tag of authenticity will be sewn into each bag to ensure its authenticity and recognize the artisans.

After graduation, Stewart will return to Oklahoma to focus on the design and marketing of her handbags, and to be closer to her parents, Robert and Jimmie Carole, who live in Washington, and her sister, Kelley Hyde, in Norman.

Her business plan is simple and matter-of-fact. "I will incorporate American Indian designs with a contemporary twist and become part of a movement of artists who are creating modern decorative objects in an ancient manner,” she said. Judging from her early success, she’s well on her way.

Video | UNRESERVED Native New York Fashion Week

Check out this video, by wwd.com, featuring the designers of the UNRESERVED Alliance Designer Collective event, held in New York during Fashion Week. This video covers three segments: Vena Cava, UNRESERVED, and L.A.M.B.

The Native shpeel starts at the 1 minute mark. This type of coverage for a Native fashion event is great (WWD!) - but they could have been a wee bit more creative when selecting the background music... but that's just my opinion!

Maya Stewart Featured in Tulsa World Newspaper

By STACY PRATT
World Correspondent
Published: 2/21/2010 2:27 AM

Editor's Note: Stacy Pratt is an Oklahoma native now living in New York with her husband, a U.S. Army staff sergeant and Oklahoma native stationed at Fort Drum. Pratt's cousin is Maya Stewart, a Washington, Okla., native who started a line of handbags featured in this year's New York Fashion Week, held last week.

NEW YORK — Bryant Park is covered with the remains of yesterday's big snow, but a bright sun shines on the famous white tents that have taken over this peaceful oasis in the middle of Manhattan.

Muffled music from the runway shows inside them serves as a soundtrack to the action outside: Security guards check invitations and press passes of expensively dressed socialites and journalists in comfortable shoes. Television crews shoot teasers for interviews with models and designers whose names and faces make regular appearances in the biggest fashion magazines.

At the park's round green tables, men play cards as they probably do every day, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this is Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week — the week when designers unveil their spring collections for the press, department store buyers and anyone else lucky enough to score a coveted invitation to the event's last year at this landmark location.

While the white tents have been a symbol of New York Fashion Week since its inception in 1943, shows are held all over Manhattan, including right across the street from the tents in historic Bryant Park Hotel. That's where I caught up with native Oklahoman accessories designer Maya Stewart, creator of the Crazy Snake Rebellion luxury handbag line, on Thursday, day two of the prestigious event.

In the swank red-leather lobby, she was waiting for news about a box of purses that was supposed to have arrived in New York the day before. It was sent several days ahead of time by overnight mail, but the mid-Atlantic blizzard delayed it. Now, two hours before she is due to make her Fashion Week debut as part of the UNRESERVED Designer Collective installation show in Bryant Park Hotel Loft, the purses are still en route from Oklahoma.

Most people would panic in this situation, but Stewart — who originally hails from the small town of Washington in central Oklahoma — appears completely unruffled. In an outfit of tall boots, black leggings, and a diaphanous white blouse topped by a sleek black blazer, she fits right in with the rest of the fashionably attired people in the lobby, most of whom are watching a television crew film a piece about Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha. After placing courteous, calm calls to the appropriate authorities, she grabs her things and heads toward the Loft.

"Most of the bags did make it here," Stewart says. "I really wish I had all of them, but at least I have enough to represent the collection, and the rest should arrive in time for the trunk show tomorrow."

N.M. to N.Y.
Michael Chapman and Gail Bruce, co-founders of UNRESERVED, said this kind of professional confidence, along with Stewart's innovative, high-quality work, is what convinced them to make her part of the collective's inaugural Fashion Week show.

"We met Maya at the Santa Fe Indian Market, and our PR company was blown away by her talent. We thought she'd be a great person to bring in for our first show," said Chapman. "Her enthusiasm and her talent stood out to us right away."

The Designer Collective is part of the UNRESERVED American Indian Fashion and Art Alliance, an organization formed to provide internships and other professional opportunities for American Indian designers from all tribes. Eileen Fisher, Daryl Kerrigan, Nanette Lepore, Pamela Love, Nicole Miller, Urban Zen by Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenberg are among those who have agreed to sponsor UNRESERVED interns in the coming year.

Before her involvement with UNRESERVED, Stewart, who lived in Los Angeles for several years before to moving to London for college, did internships with British designer Matthew Williamson and Los Angeles designer C.C. Skye. Bruce calls her a "shining example of what internships can do."

Chapman agrees, and says that UNRESERVED hopes to help Stewart, and the other three American Indian designers in the show, reach the next level in their careers.

"We are committed to opening up a new frontier, a new realm, for native designers through entry-level internships and other opportunities," he said. "With Maya, we want to introduce her to the press, potential backers and buyers for department stores so people can appreciate and celebrate her talent."

Bruce said Stewart's work also supports the creative goals of UNRESERVED.

"One of our goals is to bring native cultures from the past into the present with an eye to the future," she said.

Stewart, who is finishing a bachelor's degree with honors in accessories design at the London College of Fashion, does that, creating purses and bags that incorporate designs from her Chickasaw/Creek heritage into contemporary forms, using modern luxury materials and traditional techniques.

She is part of the Fife family of designers whose artwork and fashion designs were recently featuredin a retrospective at the Broken Arrow Historical Society Museum.

"The goal of my collection is to showcase the beauty of American Indian designs using modern materials," Stewart said. "Nothing else is like it, and there are so many designs and techniques that are slowly being lost. I want to help keep them in our native communities and also share them with the wider global community."

All of the bags are varying textures and shades of black, created from fine lambskin. All of them are exquisitely constructed using techniques and designs ranging from Seminole patchwork to a raised image of a Pomo basket pattern. But it was the brilliant cerulean blue that lines the inside of many of the bags that began her inspiration.

"The theme of this collection is 'astronomy,' and the idea behind it actually began with this amazing blue," she said. "At that time, I was talking a lot to my aunt, Phyllis Fife, who directs the NSU Symposium on the American Indian in Tahlequah, and the theme that year was 'Sun, Moon, Stars,' so the importance of the sky to our native cultures was on my mind. When I saw this color, I knew I wanted to create a collection that would reflect that reverence in a subtle but powerful way."

Great opportunity
For the Loft show, Stewart's purses and a hand-woven sash made of thin nylon cords created by her aunt, artist Sandy Wilson of Morris, are displayed on two large wooden discs. The natural textures both contrast with and complement the modern lines and ancient patterns of the purses.

For almost five hours, Stewart stands next to her collection answering questions from members of the fashion media, including several respected industry publications, as well as buyers from major department stores and private collectors.

The next afternoon, Stewart once again arranges her collection — this time with the formerly missing bags included — and prepares for the trunk show and cocktail party that follows. This event is held in the elegant Ramscale Studios Penthouse on the banks of the Hudson River. Featured in several television shows and movies, the 13th-floor penthouse has high ceilings and huge windows that face the Empire State Building on one side and the Statue of Liberty on another.

"I'm so glad to have all the bags here," she says. "I put so much into this collection, and it's gratifying to have so many people come by to see it."

About the event
These days, around 40 fashion weeks are held across the world, from Los Angeles to Johannesburg, but New York Fashion Week is the oldest of the lot. Begun in 1943 by fashion editor Eleanor Lambert, the event was originally called Press Week. Lambert organized it because Francewas then occupied by Germany, cutting the American fashion press off from its usual source of news.

This first event also heralded a new attention to American designers, who until then were all but ignored in favor of the French. Today, New York Fashion Week is one of the four largest and most important fashion weeks, along with Milan, Paris and London.

This year marks the UNRESERVED Alliance’s first show at New York Fashion Week. In addition to showcasingup-and-coming Native American designers Maya Stewart, Victoria and Dylan Poblano, Maria Samora and Patricia Michaels, this year’s show marks the beginning of the organization’s fashion internship program.

For more information on the UNRESERVED Alliance internship program, visit unreservedalliance.org.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/article.aspx?subjectid=43&articleid=20100221_43_D4_MayaSt662241&rss_lnk=4

Breaking into the New York Fashion Scene

Here’s another post about the UNRESERVED Alliance event in New York during Fashion Week (Written by WGSN Americas blog). It is great to see so many (albeit brief) responses to the UNRESERVED Alliance Native fashion events (which were two trunk shows: one on Thursday and one on Friday).

I attended the UNRESERVED trunk show on Friday at Ramscale Penthouse Studios, and was curious if the Native fashion events were ‘a success.’ UNRESERVED co-founder Gail Bruce told me that the Thursday event went well – it was a trunk show at the Bryant Park Hotel Loft. Instead of doing a full fashion show, they wanted to create a more intimate environment where members of the press could attend and interact with the designers. One of the most important aspects of Fashion Week is getting press coverage – this is the reason why the New York Fashion Week launched in the first place during the post-war era: if you create one event where the best of America’s designers will share their work, the press will attend and review, discuss, and promote the fashion designs in various publications (the top being magazines like Vogue or Harpers Bazaar). So, 'success' is gauged by press coverage.

One of the goals of the UNRESERVED Alliance is to get Native American designers and artists into the New York scene since it is our country’s fashion and art mecca (some of my New York friends disagree – citing the recent emergence of new art centers and the decentralizing of the art world due to increased mobilization – but that’s a different story!). On a basic level, UNRESERVED most definitely accomplishes this goal – they were able to get designers into New York. However, it is my opinion that the events were small. New York is big, there are many events going on, and members of the press expect fantastic shows to report on. Basically, Native artists and designers (and their show coordinators) need to bring their A game. We're competing with 'the best of the best' for press attention. The post by WGSN (below) states that there were several culture-specific events at Fashion Week – but we need to be more than just a cultural event, we need to be a top-notch fashion event. Depending on promotion as a cultural-event runs the risk of ‘ghettoizing’ Native fashion designers.

It is my hope that UNRESERVED will continue their effort in the years to come, and will host an actual ‘fashion show’ during NY Fashion Week. I also hope they will recognized the necessity to support the designers in building the infrastructural business side of their labels, so that when they do show at Bryant Park, the designers will be able to follow through with the responses (to fulfill orders) that will undoubtedly occur with a showing of Native fashion.

WSGN wrote:

This season we are seeing an increased number of country or culture-specific events. In this case, the American Indian alliance offered a look into the collections of a few very talented Native American designers.

Veronica and Dylan Poblano previewed a hand-created jewelry line in bright colors and traditional stone finishes and patterns.

Maya Stweart's bags combine modern aesthetics with traditional, Native American patterns and shapes.

Patricia Michaels offered a look into her line of women's clothing. Leather, silk and wool are used in unique ways to create contemporary-looking silhouettes with deep connection to Indian heritage.

WGSN focuses on the trends that the US, Central and South American teams are tracking now. WGSN publishes thousands of news and business stories each year, reacting to the events and issues in the fashion and style industries worldwide, predicting what will matter to industry professionals now and in the future.

Review | UNRESERVED Alliance show

Check out this post from www.111BreakingNews.com and PaperMag.com about the UNRESERVED Alliance show at Bryant Park:

Vanna White

by Tariq

Though the thought of collaborating with their mothers might be enough to make some designers light headed, mother and son jewelry designers Dylan and Veronica Poblano, who were among five American Indian designers who had work on display at the UNRESERVED American Indian Fashion and Art Alliance fashion showcase in the Bryant Park Hotel Thursday, love working together. “He can be difficult, but I’ll do whatever he throws at me,” Veronica said. The New Mexico natives use fluid, Zuni inlays and carving techniques in their pieces. Veronica, who counts Vanna White among her clients, works with coral and turquoise in her designs, while Dylan favors monofilament silver to create Art-Deco star bursts and cascading necklaces. Most of the designers at the showcase have work that have connections to their mothers. Chickasaw/Creek bag designer Maya Stewart makes her hand-sewn, quilted and geometric clutches from lamb and pig’s skin with her mother, who has items from her early 70s fashion line, “The Fife Collection,” on display in the Smithsonian.Taos-based Designer Patricia Michaels, whose ready-to-wear line uses silk and charmeuse to evoke eagle feathers, learned how to sew from her gallery-owner mother. Michaels said her clothes are influenced by the narrative aspect of Native American ceremonial wear. “Each garment here has a story behind it, just like every traditional outfit has a story behind it. In a sense, it’s retold on your skin.” Jeweler Maria Samora, also a Taos native, works with two-tone metals to create cuffs, necklaces and earrings with geometric prints she says are inspired by the bold, clean lines of her home town. “I always test the pieces, that’s really important. ” she said. “Sometimes the earring’s too heavy and after an hour you just want to rip it off. Jewelry is such a personal thing. It’s not like a painting that just goes on your wall.”

Review | Maya Stewart at NYFW

(Image from Dream Sequins. Maya Stewart with her purses.)

Below is a review posted by Dream Sequins about the UNRESERVED Alliance trunk show at Bryant Park during NY Fashion Week on purse-maker Maya Stewart (Chickasaw/Creek):

Tamara and I made our way to Bryant Park Hotel for a showcase of American Indian fashion and accessories sponsored by the Unreserved American Indian Fashion and Art Alliance. The Loft at the hotel was a beautiful, sunny backdrop for six talented emerging designers. Being an accessories lover, I immediately fell for the inky clutch creations of Maya Stewart, who is currently enrolled in London College for accessory design. Crazy Snake Rebellion is the name of her socially-conscious collection and despite the urban-friendly colors of her pieces, the collection pays tribute to American Indian cultures and themes.