Beyond Buckskin September Links!

Lots happening in the Beyond Buckskin area of interests, so I thought I'd do a round up of some interesting articles and links - click away!

Native Elegance Hits Runway: A review of a Rapid City runway show featuring designs by Darlene Perkins, Mildred Carpenter, and Danita Strawberry. Models and designers from Indian country makin South Dakota look sexy!

Oklahoma Artist Joins NIKE to Create Native Inspired Clothing: A cool write-up about Bunky Echo-Hawk's historic collaboration with Nike - an alliance that's proving to have positive impacts on inspiring Native youth. Follow your dreams, kids!

Crossing Generations: Blogger Miss Mondo highlights Maori fashion designers Keri Wanoa and Hemi Sundgren, the brains behind WHIRI fashion. Miss Mondo is basically the Maori version of Beyond Buckskin, so of course I am an avid reader/follower! (but not in a creepy way!)

The Ephemerals: An all-female Aboriginal collective of artists and curators, the Ephemerals critique the current Tribal Trend and encourage college students to take a deeper look at the cultural implications of Fall's most important trends.

The Racial Construction of Preppiness, part II: The fierce ladies over at Threadbared take a look at a group of young urban males who appropriate and re-mix (and re-fashion) the Americana image constructed by designer Ralph Lauren. That's right, 'Polo low lifes'. Not specifically Native-focused, but a good article on the construction and reconstruction of identity, culture, and class. Super sick.

Futurist Giorgio Sant' Angelo, An Hommage: A model's perspective on Giorgio Sant Angelo, a designer whose vibrant Indigenous-inspired couture was all the rage in the 1970s. He made the Tribal Trend très chic by garbing celebrities such as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Diana Ross, and the Jaggers. (the Jaggers!)

Colorful Rooster Feathers Being Used As Hair Accessories: A creepy article about how one salon is taking the Feather Extensions Trend "a step further" by adding Native hair to the feather look. Get this, "because it's so hard to get rooster feathers," they started incorporating American Indian hair ("because of its strength"). Yikes! Using American Indian hair, they say, offers a more animal-friendly alternative. Scalps anyone?

Style Show Highlights Traditional Dress: The Cherokee Phoenix online news source reviewed a recent Southeastern-Indian fashion show held in Tahlequah. Models of all ages wore clothing from a period ranging from 900 A.D. to the present. Photo highlights include a full-length turkey-feather cape and this pretty Seminole style skirt (pictured above).



NDNs From All Directions from Bear Witness on Vimeo.

And finally, A Tribe Called Red Production video featuring the NDNs From All Directions ultimate remix. Fricka fricka.

Review | Highland High School Fashion Show

Highland High School Fashion Show
by Addelina Lucero

For this particular event, I had a really different perspective than most onlookers, as I was backstage in all the chaos and fun that makes for a good fashion show. Both my children were models in the show and their excitement was contagious.

The practice walks, outfit try-ons and model picks started the Tuesday and Wednesday before the event. These were held at Highland High School. Here, we got to meet a couple of the designers and the awesome Highland High School students and staff who were putting the show together this year. As I understand it, this event is a highly anticipated one for the students, staff, and the Native Community. This is its’ 14th year and is always followed up with a pow wow at the end of April.

The purpose of the event is to raise funds for the Native American Leadership Student organization as well as to support & create awareness for Native style, designs/ers, and overall talent. It’s a very challenging sort of thing to pull off for professionals let alone a small group (8 students and 1 teacher) of non-professionals. There were 4 categories: Pow-Wow, Traditional, Contemporary and Accessories.

The event started off a bit shaky but once the announcers got into their grooves, it went pretty smoothly with a few little “oopsies” here and there. The first designer to be shown was a Navajo designer all the way from Northern Arizona. I do not recall his name but his designs were truly the highlight of the night. This young man truly knows how to “dress” a woman’s body. He was aware of how the garments were going to flow and move with the body. This was evident in the prints he used and the placement of these prints on the garments. (Traditional Category) My faves are as follows:

(Top) Pendleton parka! Need I say more?? (Middle) A royal blue crushed velvet ¾ length sleeve top featuring many copper rivets and pottery cut-outs at bottom over a traditional flower and ribbon brrom skirt. (Bottom) An orange crushed velvet top with pottery design cut-outs, a concha belt over a black broom skirt that featured the same trim as top (not shown) was traditional and very contemporary at the same time.

The next designer featured was Red Wings, and these traditional “pueblo party” designs, mainly for little girls and young ladies, had the crowd applauding. Traditional Category.

(Top) Blue & purple satin party dress with empire waist and puff sleeves (Middle) Pink and purple paisley pueblo party dress worn by my daughter Jilleesa (Middle) Orange and yellow flower pueblo tube dress (Bottom) Turquoise Women’s crushed satin one shoulder, full length dress with front slit.

The next designer was very creative in her use of sheer fabrics. She draped most of her dresses in ways that escaped the “clumpy” look and managed to still be sexy and fun. She was featured in the Contemporary category.

(Top) Black lace covers a black lace, off shoulder and flutter sleeves over a simple black mini dress (Middle) White lycra mini tube dress features a toga inspired front (Middle) White criss cross ruffled frot mini with a sheer ruffled bottom (Bottom) Apricot Tube top with a sheer ruffled left shoulder, banded black belt and apricot print capris.

There were a couple of jewelry and accessories designers there but not much information was made available to the audience. Much of the jewelry you see the models wearing is borrowed from these designers. Here are a few pictures featuring some jewelry and accessories:

(Top) Simple round turquoise bead necklace worn by my son Julian (Bottom) Feathered & Leathered men’s shoulder sash.

The last designer featured was Albuquerque’s own Penny Singer who is also a Highland High Alumni. Penny contributes her time and designs to the Highland High School’s Native American Leadership Fashion Show every year, since its’ inception. Her designs convey traditional with a contemporary feel. She has “Indianized” bolero vests, women’s collarless zip jackets, one-shoulder stapped dresses, and more….. featuring animal and pueblo motifs, and the use of other various elements and shapes.

Singer Classics such as; men’s and boy’s ribbon shirts were featured.

Overall, I think this was a great event. Inspiring! Not only did these students plan the event, they invited all the featured guests, promoted it, entertained, and pulled it off. It was not a professional event, but hey, what do you expect from high school students?

I have been behind the scenes on three fashion shows as a production manager while I was in college and even with over 55 students, planning, organizing, designing clothes and sets, we still had a hard time the days leading up to the event and with the event itself, so I am truly impressed with these youth for all they went through to get this fashion show off the ground. I will be back next year for sure!

Review | RED Runway Fashion Show

RED Runway Fashion Show
by Brenton Bluehouse
NATV 450

A backdrop of loudly tattered beat music played inside as it covered what was already playing hip-hop old school connection of 90’s tunes outside in the bar that would be the setting for the RED Runway fashion design premier. Club 405 was probably not the best venue to hold such an event, but when it comes to the Gathering of Nations weekend, it’s almost necessary to be where you know the brown masses are going to congregate and be there ready to show your stuff.

Being that this would be my first formal experiment with a fashion show in Native America, I went in with no expectations but a good time and a glimpse into the world of Native fashion. With the beautiful landscape use of Native Model Studios USA and Canada, on the list of showing their fashion would be a number of talented fashion designers such as: Carol Melting Tallow, Alano Edzera, ShoSho Designs, Redhand Apparel, & more as the listing stated.

It was hard to determine when and where the fashion show started. Originally slated to begin at 9:30 pm, the first model strutted her style across the floor after the strike of midnight. Models slowly with some muffle, entered the bar via the bar room around the bar, into the dance floor, out onto the patio where a strip of waiting onlookers gazed with outstretched eyes and cameras. I was just happy that the venue started and the gorgeous models moved their fabrics towards me. There was a display of simple everyday wear with the print designs of tribal work. Prints with that of feathers, eagles, and the red designs that cover the Northwestern tribes of the U.S. What did catch my eye were the jackets with varied color and design. Old patterns of squares and stars mixed with contrasting colors of yellow and pink with sleeves of dainty cross lines of simple black and white. These jackets were the highlight of the show in my opinion. As some model shows last, this one was very fast but interesting in my eyes. As I return to look at the event, the goal is to promote the existence of Native fashion, and to make out the realization for those out there that the Native scene in fashion design and ‘lore is getting stronger with every stitch.

Afterwards, I spoke with one of the photographers of the evening Larry Price and he stated to me that one of the fashion designers had just flown in from Canada whom they were waiting for. That was the reason for the delay in the show. In the end the show for myself did not live up to its fashion and flare of its poster. I expected more coordination on behalf of the promoters and not just the walking out of the models in unawared connection. I have to applaud the efforts of the people involved and the models for waiting almost three hours later for the show to begin. With utter beginnings such as this one, I am not certain if the promoters should be looking for other jobs and the designers better venues to show case their marvelous talents. For they can only go higher from this point.

Review | Fifth Annual Highland Native Leadership Council Fashion Show

Review on the “Fifth Annual Native American Fashion Show”
by Cheyenne Beardsley
for NATV 450 (University of New Mexico)

I attended the “Fifth Annual Native American Fashion Show” held at the UNM Continuing Education Building on March 24th, 2011. The event was sponsored by the Highland Native American Leadership Council. This was only the second Native fashion event I have ever attended. When I first arrived right at 6pm when the show was supposed to start there were not many people there. However when the show started one of the MC’s mentioned that usually people trickle in as the show progresses and sure enough by the end there were a lot more seats filled. One thing I noticed right off the bat was that most of the MC’s were young people—high school age mostly. I thought that really reflected an investment in youth and leadership from the people who were running the show.

The show included four main designers who were Shayne Watson, Shirley Pino, the Glacsy Company, and lastly Penny Singer. There were over thirty models, including men, women, and children who were showing off the designer’s work. The show began with pieces by various designers and the first category was “Traditional”. It was a man’s traditional outfit but unfortunately I didn’t catch which tribe the outfit was from. The MC said the outfit was meant to reflect a “proud heritage in the US marine corps”. Following that was a woman’s traditional outfit from the Potawatomie tribe. It was inspired from the 1930s era and I noticed it included a lot of floral designs.

The first designer, Shayne Watson (an award-winning designer), had really beautiful pieces. I think his designs were my favorite. His models wore contemporary pieces inspired by traditional designs from the Navajo and Potawatomie tribes and Santo Domingo Pueblo. His outfits included broom skirts, velvet and silk tops, silver beads, evening wear, and my favorites Pendleton jackets with hoods. I want to buy one of those!

The second designer up was Shirley Pino. The first models to come out modeling her designs were two little Cowboys wearing western style clothing that was according to the MC “inspired by George Strait”. I liked that she had designs for men, women and children. Some of her most interesting pieces were her men’s pieces, such as the shoulder collar with feathers. I had never seen anything like that, but it seemed very Native couture. I also really liked one of her male feast shirts that had “rasta” colors (red, yellow, and green). The description given for that shirt was that it was for an “unafraid” Pueblo man to wear—unafraid to express a unique style I’m guessing.

Next was the Glacsy Company which seemed to be a conglomerate of various designers rather than just one. Most of the Glacsy designs were really modern. Many of there weren’t obviously tied to traditional designs, but they were all by Native designers I believe. Lastly there was Penny Singer. Her designs incorporated a lot of animal motifs and she seemed to draw inspiration from a lot of sources. She had things such as a ribbon shirt inspired by turquoise jewelry, a vest that was inspired by “goats that love corn”, a butterfly vest, a ribbon shirt with the Steelers logo, and a jacket inspired by a Navajo rug.

Fashion shows are not necessarily something I would normally go to just for fun, but I’m glad we had to for this class because I really enjoyed it and I think I might go again next year if I get the chance. I think my favorite part was seeing the multitude of ways in which Native designers are expressing their creativity and reflecting their culture and traditions through their clothing designs.

GON 2011 Review | Gathering of Nations Powwow

This past semester I taught a course at the University of New Mexico titled Native American Adornment. It was an upper division course in Native American Studies and Anthropology, and it focused on Native American practices of adornment from prehistory to the present. Throughout the term, we investigated the creative, social, political and cultural aspects of decorating the body.

It was a terrific class, and I had a group of bright students who enthusiastically took on the course requirements and did an amazing job. One of the requirements was to attend Native fashion or cultural events, and write a succinct review. The purposes of the assignment were to get students to view the garments on the body and in motion, to see and experience the community aspects of clothing and adornment, and to get students to think critically about these events.

I want to share a few of their reviews over the duration of the next week, and here is the first review by Brenton Bluehouse:

Gathering of Nations Pow Wow

It is probably one of the greatest showcases of indigenous peoples gathering in the world, and depending on what your view is of this pow wow, it still is a spectacle to see and be a part of. Every year thousands of individuals make there way to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow to be included in what has become a showing of quasi-indianism in the United States. If you are not a dancer, you’re a family member of a dancer and if your not participating in the pow wow, you have come to the pow wow to listen and watch the high sound and colorful costume. For thousands of people come to share their personal expressions of themselves and their culture.

This year with the remodeling of The Pit here in Albuquerque, it has become more of a relaxed setting for many. Halls are not crowded and access is comforting. People come to this event with shutter speeds set to high and consent forms just in case, to take pictures of the regalia, costumes and meaningful conclusions of the thousands of dancers on display. Each individual lays down a significant pattern of style to each of what they wear across their body. Each person is of a different tribe descending from parts all over the country. Each person in detail carries a history of themselves and their people in the personal design of their outfit, as they are the fashion creators. Even though that tradition and culture may not have included itself in each persons history with the pow wow, times change, and now it serves as a tribalization of oneself.

In what is the official kick off to a pow wow, the grand entry gives a beautiful display of what the night has to offer. All of the dancers and singers get the chance to loudly welcome themselves to the arena and come together as one, to join each other in color and warmth. Each come to dance and sing in hide, wing and color. Eagle feathers drape themselves in accordance with the northern traditional men. Deer hide and with color are carried in strong context in the women’s tradition northern cloth category. As they listen and dance in succession, the long exaggerated fringe from their blankets never touch the floor, but swing front to back to compliment the beat of the drum. To the jingle dress dancers, as onlookers we cannot see the detail of each curved piece of metal, but can hear in its entirety the continued beat of the woman inside that dress.

The goal of a pow wow is a chance for indigenous peoples to come together in celebration of itself and its individual expression. Some pow wow’s post high dollar in competition to bring the best dancers. Some dancers go where the money is to compete and gain such accolades. For whatever reason people come to the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow, it gives me a good feeling to know that there are tribal people uniting under one roof to talk, laugh, and change in view the sights and sounds of a continued people in these modern times. Where else are you going to get an actual “Navajo Taco” made by Navajos for $8.00?