Manitobah Mukluks

Manitobah Mukluks have been hitting the (Canadian) news lately, and so I want to spread some love down here in the States -

Manitobah Mukluks is headed up by Metis entrepreneur Sean McCormick, who has turned traditional moccasins and mukluks into some pretty cool contemporary footgear.

Founded in 1997, the company started off small - at a trading post in Winnipeg. McCormick traded raw materials (leathers and furs) to First Nations women who brought in their handmade mukluks. Customers, he says, couldn't get enough of them, so he hired some folks and started producing them in-house. Since then, the four-person shop has grown to an operation that employs 50, with a factory and warehouse in Winnipeg and a global sales and marketing office near Ottawa.

McCormick says, "We make a product that's a really cool melding of the past and the present."

As the brand’s popularity expands and its mukluks and moccasins are included in popular fashion magazines, McCormick is not worried about sacrificing authenticity.

"I think it’s really good that an Aboriginal company with Aboriginal staff is making and selling Aboriginal products, rather than a non-Aboriginal company doing it," he explains, noting that there are competitors making a similar product without his company’s connection to the community.

Read more here:
Manitobah Mukluks Pow Wows at a Canadian Event
Trading on the Past
Our Feet are Dreaming of a warm Christmas
One Foot in the Past and One in the Future

Louie Gong's Killer Whale vs. Seals Custom Shoes

(Custom Coast Salish / Northwest Coast style shoes by Louie Gong)

About this pair, Gong says, "I started these Killer Whale vs. Seals customs about a year ago. I didn't like what I had done so I set them aside...until tonight, when I did some work to salvage them. I really like em! (all my shoes are hand drawn so there is only one of each design available."

For more information, click here, here or here.

Shoes | Powwow Love Drama

"Powwow Love Drama"
Experimental Ledger art custom shoes by Orlando Obie Begay

D I S C O

LUXE QUILTED PLATFORM SANDALS in navy blue & black by Topshop. £98. In my opinion, the perfect 70's shoe for the up & coming party season. The question is - in blue or black?! Also - check out my new tumblr here for pages full of inspiration and images that don't fit on the blog: http://whothefuckismickjagger.tumblr.com/.

AUDIO

I've been really busy these past few days with work and Open Uni work, I really resent myself for being a bad blogger sometimes. I've had a lot of lovely emails & comments from readers and lots of requests for more outfit posts, and for those of you that have been following my blog for a while, you'll know that I had a camera, but it got stolen. I haven't had a chance to get hold of a good camera ever since then and each outfit photo I've done has been grainy and frankly, horrible to look at. I desperately want to get my hands on an SLR pronto. Once I get hold of a decent camera I promise my blog will develop more and I will feel much more motivitated and inspired. For now I leave you with a couple of photos of my favourite things at the moment; firstly, this photo of Keith Richards I found on Spanish Moss blog, wearing my favourite 'Keef' combination of leopard print, polka dots & pirate stripes. And secondly, the most beautiful pair of shoes I've ever seen. A combination of everything I like about shoes (leopard print, gold block heel, cheeky zipper up the back, platform & black velvet), something I can imagine the female version of Keith Richards wearing... I'm going to London tomorrow and will be spending hours in Topshop Oxford Circus rummaging the sale & I might just commit to buying these fabulous (non sale) shoes. Expect lots of tweets about my shoe lust.
Follow me on Twitter via the link on the right, you have to send a request first but I accept all - unless you're a 78yr old man named Pablo from Oklahoma... etc.

Sandra Okuma Beaded Shoes

(Beaded Shoes by Sandra Okuma, Shoshone/Luiseno, at the 2011 SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market. Photo by Amber-Dawn Bear Robe)

My friend Amber-Dawn Bear Robe spotted these awesome shoes at the Santa Fe Indian Market last weekend. They are made by Sandra Okuma, who is of Shosone-Banock and Luiseno heritage. With an education in commercial art from Los Angeles Tech, she worked as a graphic designer for a number of years. She is inspired by antique Indian beadwork as well as contemporary powwow regalia to create masterly paintings and beaded items. Her vibrantly-colored paintings depict people of all ages and tribal affiliations in elegant powwow-style clothing with beaded accessories.

Nike N7 & Bunky Echo-Hawk

Nike recently teamed up with Native artist Bunky Echo-Hawk (Pawnee/Yakama) to produce the latest N7 line. The new collection was launched during the Native American Basketball Invitational held in July in Phoenix. Echo-Hawk worked with the Nike team as a design consultant, and the colors and images are based on his brightly-hued paintings and live art that he's become known for.

(Images courtesy of Larry Price and Bunky Echo-Hawk on Facebook)

Video | Louie Gong

Below is a fantastic video featuring Custom Shoe artist Louie Gong, who discusses the importance of putting Northwest Coast designs on shoes - his business goes beyond aesthetics and is an extension of his activism around racial identity. This 'artist profile' was filmed during the American Indian Film Festival by Northwest Indian News. It begins with wonderful comments by Tracy Rector of Longhouse Media.

GON 2011 Vans x Pendleton

Check out this special collaboration that Vans did with Nibwaakaawin for the Gathering of Nations Powwow and All Nations Skate Jam.

These shoes premiered last year at ANSJ 2010 and sold out within hours.

For the 2011 event, Vans created several limited edition SK8-HIs, Classic Slip-Ons and Chukka Lows using Pendleton fabrics. Proceeds from the sale of the sneakers will go towards Nibwaakaawin’s fundraising efforts – a Native non-profit organization whose goal is to empower Native youth through skateboarding.

The ANSJ website stated, "A limited selection of styles and sizes from the original runs, (Skate Jam and Indian Summer 2010) is still available for purchase. Contact shoes@allnationsskatejam.com to order a pair."

OH MY GOD, SHOES

Topshop seem to have gone all 60's with their shoes recently with square block heels and colour blocking. The block heels remind me of Twiggy and Swinging London in the mid sixties, and the colours, my favourite probably being the yellow 'Juniper' shoe really make a statement (also comes in pink & black). I will 100% be buying the top black & white 'Jig' pair on pay day and I'm planning on outfits to wear with them already. All shoes from Topshop priced between £46 and £60.

Art and Identity Custom Shoe Workshop

Louie Gong, a nationally-recognized artist and mixed-heritage advocate, not only heads up the Eighth Generation custom shoe business, but also spends his time working with youth in tribal communities doing various speaking engagements and workshops.

Gong recently held a Custom Shoe Workshop called Art and Identity, which was hosted at the Salt Lake City Indian Walk-In Center held at the end of March.

This workshop uses the process of creating a custom shoe as a platform for exploring personal identity. It includes technical guidance and one-on-one support for students as they create their own shoe design and execute the design on a canvas shoe. You can read more about this workshop by clicking here.

In 2009 and 2010, Eighth Generation donated or gifted more art than it sold.

See more pics at the Custom Coast Salish / Northwest Coast style shoes by Louie Gong Facebook page or at the Eighth Generation website.

The Fashion of Moccasins

I've embarked on yet another project!:

Working with the School for Advanced Research (Indian Arts and Research Center) and filmmaker Melissa Henry, I’m consulting on a video documentary that investigates the fashion of moccasins (such a cool concept!).

Though it is relatively easy to determine whether or not hipsters, hippies, or non-Native fashionistas wear moccasins, it is much harder to determine the level at which Native American youth (14-24) are rockin’ mocs as a fashion statement.

I’ve been digging through my photos from Native fashion shows to see if mocs are being worn on the runway, and indeed they are:

However, although they are on the runway (in limited doses: about one for every dozen pairs of black high heels), do Native youth see them as fashionable?

In the past, Native people wore moccasins everyday, now it appears we wear them only on special occasions (such as at powwows, feast days, or graduations). How can we return their daily use? How can we make Native-made moccasins attractive for a new generation?

We need to start a Rock the Mocs campaign!

MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOU

I said that today was going to be a productive day and that I would wake up at 9am to get all sorts of things done, instead I woke up at 12pm because I had a dream about my (beautiful) old school teacher - WHAT A MAN. Once I was up I thought I should maybe do something slightly productive like take photos of things to put on ebay and then I realised I don't have a digital camera. Instead... I decided to take photos of my shoes on my Blackberry.

I realised all my shoes are in such bad condition, the heels are falling off, they're all grubby, it's horrible. Who in their right mind would treat their beloved shoes like that.

1 - Leopard platforms bought for me by my best friend for my birthday last year from ASOS.com.

2 - Blue velvet with gold buckle flats from Topshop (very old).

3 - Black flats with gold studs from Topshop.

4 - Black & white brogue style heels from New Look.

5 - Leopard flats from Next (about 4 years old).

6 - Brown lace up heels from Primark (why?!).

7 - Black & gold suede seventies style platforms from Topshop (reduced from £75 to £25 in the sale, my favourites).

8 - Black suede heels from Next (wore to mum's hen night & wedding, incredibly difficult to walk in).

9 - DOCS! Bought from the Doc Marten shop in Covent Garden,

10 - Red & black 1960's loafers from a vintage store (another of my favourites).

11 - Black lace up trainer style heels from Topshop.

12 - Furry leopard print 'Keef' style boots (my lovers, bought for £75 only to find out they'd been reduced to £30 two weeks after I bought them).

13 - Brown lace up pixie boots from ebay.

Event | Footwork: Art and the Shoe

(by Shawn Nelson)

(by Crystal Worl)

(by Sun Rose Iron Shell)

In October I traveled to Oklahoma to participate in the 16th Biennial Native American Art Studies Association Conference, and met two students from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) who were planning to curate a show at IAIA's Primitive Edge Gallery in December and January. Their idea was to have an event focused on shoes, and the exhibit recently opened in Santa Fe:

Footwork: Art and the Shoe Primitive Edge Gallery
IAIA Campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Dec 10, 2009 through Jan 24, 2010

Indigenous people have always made a concentrated effort to adorn themselves in a beautiful way. Footwork is a showcase of footwear and art, and how the two have forever been a part of the Native way of life--the paths we walk and the steps we take into the future.


Now that I'm in Santa Fe, I plan to check out the show before it shuts down!