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  • Writer's pictureThea Hwang
    • Sep 7

Indigenous Fashion

The fashion gatekeepers have tended to view Indigenous dress practices, and generally the dress of non-white, non-Euro-American cultures, as existing outside of fashion, when there are good reasons to place Indigenous dress practices, for its handcrafting, design, and innovation, squarely within the traditions of haute couture. I learned this from a recent Dressed: The History of Fashion podcast episode where the hosts, April Calahan and Cassidy Zachary, compiled their past interviews with Indigenous curators, journalists, and designers, making it a nice overview of Indigenous fashion. 


Hand Craftsmanship. Diné fashion designer Orlando Dugi talked on the podcast about the handcrafting values and skills that run in his family and Navajo culture. About weaving, he said: “My grandparents. . .they raise a sheep, care for the sheep, and shear it and clean and process the wool, dye it, spin it into a workable yarn, and then set up a loom and then weave it into a garment.” For Dugi, the craftsmanship that he saw in his family has always been present in a lot of Indigenous communities, even if it hasn’t been acknowledged from a fashion point of view.


Design. Rising Plains Cree designer Jontay Kahm took inspiration from powwow regalia for his 2023 debut collection, “Regalian Bodies,” shown at the annual Santa Fe Indian Market fashion show in New Mexico organized by SWAIA (Southwestern Association of Indian Arts). For his design concept, Kahm explained that when the human body is adorned with traditional regalia, a transformation takes place, with the wearer’s physicality enhanced with the spirit of regalian bodies, a fusing of ancient couture with the designer’s own avant-garde work.




Kahm's Bell-Bird Dress (above) and Afflictions Dress (right)


Innovation. Innovation has historically been ingrained in Indigenous northern clothing. To preserve the wearer in the Arctic climate, Indigenous fashion innovated materials that were waterproof, warm and beautiful. “You do not get more couture than hunting the animal, skinning the animal, taking the intestines, cleaning the intestines to be absolutely clean and pristine and flattening them and sewing it together to make not only an aesthetically beautiful, stunning jacket or parka, but also to make something that is life-saving,” Native art historian and fashion curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe said on the podcast. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I saw a parka (pictured below) that was made by Edna Oktokiyuk, a member of the Yup’ik, a native Alaskan people. This piece blends utility and design. Its panels of seal intestines are stitched together to make a waterproof overcoat that is meant to be worn over and keep dry a denser, warmer jacket underneath. Dotted with auklet feathers and beaks, this piece looks so fashion-forward that it doesn’t seem possible that it was made around 1910!


Historically framed as objects of curiosity, Indigenous dress is clearly more than that, with anthropological, cultural and fashion significance.


Sources & Further Reading


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