Indian Market 100: Before Indigenous Fashion

This year, the wildly popular Santa Fe Indian Market’s Indigenous Fashion Show will be a two-part event.

It is one of the hottest tickets in the Indian Market. This year the SWAIA Indigenous Fashion Show is Saturday-Sunday, August 20-21.

More than a dozen designers will participate, including Catherine Blackburn (Dene, European, English River First Nation), Jamie Okuma (Luiseno, Shoshone-Bannock, Wailaki, Okinawan, La Jolla), Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo), Lesley Hampton (Anishinabe), Orlando Dugi (Navajo), Sho Sho Esquiro (Kaska Dene Aboriginal, Cree, Scottish) and Cody Sanderson (Navajo). We spoke with fashion show producer Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika/Blackfoot) about what to expect.

Wes Studi models for Cody Sanderson

Cowboys & Indians: How will this year’s show be different?

Amber Dawn Bear Clothes: It will be bigger by expanding over two days, with different designers for each, followed by a trunk dinner. The goal is to grow the fashion programming at a SWAIA Fashion Week.

C&I: How has the show evolved and what does it take to make it happen?

Bear’s clothes: Blood, sweat and tears! [Laughs.] The first SWAIA track was outside in Cathedral Park. I put it together with almost no resources in 2013.

C&I: What will we see this year?

Bear’s Clothes: Couture, ready-to-wear and wearable art. The vibe and energy will change. Saturday evening will be quieter with a “cold” atmosphere. I’m encouraging guests to have fun, dress up to the nines with bling, glitz and glam. Saturday’s show will be luxurious, a very social evening. Sunday is more of a traditional runway style. Both will be at the Santa Fe Convention Center for wine and nibbles.

C&I: How do you prepare?

Bear’s Clothes: It’s a big production, and I wear many hats in fashion, from model manager, art director, administration, liaison, and the list goes on. Ideally, I would have a team that oversees every department in running the show, but that takes resources. Getting track lighting is challenging and expensive! Lighting, of course, can make a show, from good photos, to filmography, presenting each designer in a visual way that highlights the collections and designs. On the day of the show, the models are doing their hair and makeup, the stylists are doing the final fittings and adjustments. When booking 100 models, there will always be some no-shows or last-minute cancellations. It’s last minute controlled chaos and it keeps me on my toes. Supernaturals Indigenous modeling agency in Canada are coming here again. They bring a great eclectic energy to Santa Fe and the track.

Patricia Michaels. ©image courtesy of designer.

C&I: Anything else new?

Bear’s Clothes: Last year we experimented with trunk designer shows and it proved to be extremely popular. This component is being planned for 2022 with more structure space. People can meet the designers and models and buy or order directly from the designer.

C&I: Great idea! What trends are you seeing in indigenous fashion?

Bear’s Clothes: There are different pockets of trends in local fashion. Street wear. Ready to wear. High level. Readymade garments based on indigenous fashion are in high demand. Another trend in fashion, across the fashion board, is to represent all body sizes, ages, genres, and traditional industry expectations—to be diverse in size, color, shape, form, and gender.

C&I: How is the fashion industry progressing with diversity, especially the inclusion of Indigenous designers?

Bear’s Clothes: In America, the representation of indigenous designers is much more minimal compared to the indigenous fashion and art scene in Canada. I don’t see any real long-term commitment from the biggest clothing and fashion houses to local designers. I’ve seen big changes happen in Canada, like Vancouver’s Indigenous Fashion Week, Toronto’s Indigenous Fashion Week, now titled the Indigenous Fashion Arts Festival, magazine covers, news and media coverage outside of the Indigenous bubble.

C&I: What do people not understand about indigenous fashion?

Bear’s Clothes: If I can understand one thing, it’s that local people are extremely diverse in their expression, art and design. A Native designer, artist or model does not speak for or represent all Native North Americans. It’s ridiculous [to think] that a region can stand for the wealth of creativity in Canada and the United States. There is no single sentence, word, or box that can answer, “What is local fashion?”, which I get asked over and over again. That’s like asking, “What is American fashion?” One can witness in the recent Met Gala theme of American fashion how it is presented in many ways and manifestations. In fact, indigenous design is central to American fashion. Most people do not understand this basis of design in the United States. We need to get away from this pan-Indian idea of North American indigenous people. Native fashion can be fun, serious, political, conceptual, historical and futuristic.

C&I: What about the Future Market?

Bear’s Clothes: I love timing the SWAIA market. It is a place where people of all regions come together to celebrate indigenous arts in all their diversity. We gather together with old and new friends and family. People wear their local bling, from Okuma dresses, statement jewelry, sturdy shoes and strut their stuff. The SWAIA fashion shows are a unique experience you won’t find anywhere else in America.

Patricia Michaels track image from SWAIA.

SEE SEE ESQUIRO

Nowadays living in an apartment in New Westminster, British Columbia, designer Sho Sho Esquiro grew up in the remote Yukon of Canada.

“It is quite drastic and extreme. It’s just a beautiful place to come. I’m a proud Yukon-er,” she says.

On the two-day trip she often makes from Vancouver to the Yukon, she can see bears, moose, foxes, a herd of caribou, beavers, porcupines, eagles, owls and harriers.

“It’s always a blessing when animals are introduced,” she says.

And it’s a long three-day drive for Esquiro, 41, from Vancouver to Santa Fe, with her car loaded with her trendy clothes. She specializes in indigenous streetwear and local luxury, using recycled furs and various leathers. She appears in museums and on runways, including fashion shows in Paris and New York Fashion Week. Sociopolitical statements appear in her latest outfits. An ombre cashmere dress features the quote “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” which is beaded at the back so it looks almost abstract.

“That’s a quote from Richard Pratt, who was responsible for starting boarding schools in the US,” she says.

A bust top made of 24 carat gold, sealskin, fur and under pearl says “It’s worth the wait in gold”.

The spelling is, of course, intentional: “As if we’re waiting for justice for the murder of the missing indigenous women,” says Esquiro. “I live on a river and a huge eagle sat in a tree outside during the whole two months I was doing the work. There were times when I cried, I prayed.”

At her SWAIA trunk show, she’ll be selling one-of-a-kind and refurbished denim jackets.

“[Indian Market has] it’s been everything for my career,” she says. “I have made incredible friendships. There was networking and opportunities and pushing myself as an artist.”

Market only recently began accepting First Nations artists, and for Esquiro, it’s an opportunity to represent Canadians, First Nations, Kaska and Yukon.

“I’ve mentored young Yukon artists,” she says, “so not only has SWAIA helped me, but indirectly others.”

– WS