SWAIA Native Fashion Week

  • Carrie Wood

    Carrie Wood (Diné) of “chizhii” resides in Santa Fe, NM. She uses fashion design as a creative outlet. Carrie draws inspiration from her culture and community, always striving to make pieces that resonate with them.

  • Dehmin Cleland

    Dehmin Osawamick Cleland of “DOC” is Ojibwe and Odawa from the Wikwemikong (Bay of Beavers) reserve of Manitoulin Island currently residing on Tkaronto. A true testament to her dedication, Dehmin commenced her artistic journey at the tender age of six, diligently crafting her regalia pieces. Through steadfast commitment, she has honed her skills in sewing and beadwork, which remain integral to her artistic expression. Central to her creative endeavors are intricate floral designs and meticulously crafted beadwork, echoing the heritage and wisdom of the Anishnaabek (all Indigenous Nations).

  • Heather Bouchier × Angel Aubichon

    Heather Bouchier is from Beardyʼs & Okemasis Cree Nation in Saskatchewan Treaty Six Territory. Her designs feature up-cycled materials with touches of Cree techniques. Heather is inspired by vintage styles and blends them with modern design.

    Angel Aubichon, a Métis & Cree fashionista from Peepeekisis Cree Nation, is the co-founder and CEO of Indi City, a cutting-edge Indigenous retail brand fusing tech and tradition. Inspired by her Kokum’s chic woodland floral beadwork, Angel traded beads for laser-cut acetate, creating stunning earrings. From Meadow Lake to Calgary’s tech scene, she’s revolutionizing fashion with style and innovation.

  • Helen Oro

    For Helen Oro of Helen Oro Designs, traditional culture is an inspiration for modern-day designs. Pieces are adorned or hand stitched onto modern styles. Oro’s designs allow her to share her culture in an appropriate and respectful way. Not only is Oro known for her beautiful one of kind pieces, but also for creating opportunity and mentorship in her community.

  • Himikalas Pamela Baker

    Himikalas Pamela Baker is Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw, Tlingit and Haida from her mother’s side and Squamish by her father’s lineage. Professionally trained as a fashion designer, Baker focuses on designing a future that honors her ancestors. She does this by developing unique fashion collections and jewelry embedded with First Nation West Coast design elements. Copperknot Jewelry, co-founded by Baker, is a boutique featuring locally Vancouver-made jewelry. Himikalas’s goal has been to strengthen Native representation and to support Indigenous artists.

  • Jason Baerg

    Raised Red River in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Jason Baerg is also a registered member of the Métis Nations of Ontario. They serve their community as an Indigenous activist, curator, educator and interdisciplinary artist. Select international solo exhibitions include Canada House in London, UK, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia and the Digital Dome at the Institute of the American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. As a 2 Spirit Cree Métis fashion designer, they launched their first commercial cruise capsule collection with the New York City-based Fashion Art Gallery in 2018. In 2020, they released a complete collection at Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto under their brand Ayimach Horizons. In 2022, Baerg opened Santa Fe’s Indian Market Fashion Show Gala and was reviewed by Dr. Jessica R. Metcalfe, one of the organizers and a recognized Indigenous fashion expert, who wrote, “Jason Baerg’s collection was a crowd favourite!!!” This community recognition meant as much to Baerg as being highlighted in Vogue as one of the “15 Indigenous Artists to Know from This Year’s Santa Fe Indian Market.” In 2023, ELLE Magazine acknowledged Jason Baerg as one of “5 Indigenous Fashion Designers You Need to Know.”

  • Lesley Hampton

    Lesley Hampton is an Anishinaabe artist and fashion designer focused on mental wellness and body neutrality in fashion through the lens of the Indigenous worldview.

    Lesley is a member of Temagami First Nation, and she identifies as an adult ‘Third Culture Kid’ with her formative years spent in Canada’s Arctic and Atlantic, Australia, England, Indonesia, and New Caledonia.

    Named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Local: Toronto list and the number one Canadian brand to keep your eye on by VOGUE, Lesley has styled campaigns for the Toronto Raptors, modelled for Nike, created custom designs for The Toronto Maple Leafs, and has been a Guest Judge on Canada’s Drag Race.

  • Loren Aragon

    Loren Aragon of “Towering Stone” is a Native American fashion designer and multimedia artist. He grew up on the Acoma reservation surrounded by family, art and traditions. Aragon was influenced by pottery made by his grandmothers, garments by his aunt and jewelry made by his uncle. His mother was especially influential on his artistic journey as she was an artist, a seamstress, and educator.

    In 2016 Aragon co-founded ACONAV, a fashion brand based in Phoenix, AZ celebrating the strength and empowerment of all women. Under the ACONAV brand, Aragon has showcased collections, culturally fueled by the traditional pottery art and shareable beliefs of the Acoma Pueblo culture. Under his new menswear label of Towering Stone, Aragon continues pushing creations fueled by his Acoma heritage with designs structured to embody cultural strength and bold resilience.

  • Maria Hupfield

    As a transdisciplinary artist, Maria Hupfield crosses boundaries at the intersection of performance art, design and sculpture. In her work, the art object is positioned as active belongings where sculptures become performers in a form of object choreography between artist, audience, and art gallery. She is engaged in an ongoing series of relations with community, places, ideas, and materials. An Urban off-reservation member of the Anishinaabek People belonging to Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario, Hupfield is deeply invested in embodied practice, Native Feminisms, and ethical collaborative process. Her art was included in the exhibition “Beat Nation”, as solo project “Nine Years Towards the Sun” at the Heard Museum, and “The One Who Keeps on Giving” at The Power Plant, which travelled internationally. Her work was also shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Galerie de l’UQAM, NONAM – Nordamerika Native Museum Zurich, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Art and Design in New York, Abrons Arts Center, Center for Art – Research and Alliances (CARA), BRIC House gallery, The Bronx Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and SITE SANTA FE amongst others.

  • Orlando Dugi

    Orlando Dugi (pronounced dew-guy) is currently living and working in Santa Fe, NM but is originally from Grey Mountain, AZ, on the Navajo Nation. Beading since the age of six, Dugi’s designs are feminine, timeless and highly embellished with many hours of hand-sewing and hand-beading garments. He utilizes luxurious fabrics, textures, embellishments and extravagance, inspired by and handcrafted from traditions rooted in his Diné heritage. Orlando Dugi meticulously threads the past with the present.

  • Patricia Michaels

    Patricia Michaels creates haute couture and original designs, drawing inspiration from nature and her Native roots of Taos Pueblo. All custom-made work is fashioned under her label PM Waterlily in Santa Fe, New Mexico. High-end, limited-edition apparel and casual lines for both men and women are a part of the label. Michaels also creates uniforms and costume designs for operas. Most of her work is made with organic materials that are hand-dyed and painted by the designer, often using algae pigments. Each design she produces showcases nature’s influence combined with fluid textures, resulting in clothing with movement and individuality.

  • Penny Singer

    Penny Singer is from the Navajo Nation. Inspired by her mothers’ teaching, she quickly grasped the fundamentals of sewing and taught herself different techniques, such as applique, various stitching methods, tailoring, fitting, etc. and other elements she uses in her line of “wearable art.”

    Singer continues to expand and widen the definition of what Indigenous designs are and uses fashion to reclaim culture from an Indigenous perspective. Singer’s work is a fusion of fashion for all peoples and generations who appreciate Indigenous fashion.

  • Peshawn Bread

    Sutai (Soo-tai) is a Fashion House founded by Peshawn Bread who identifies as a Comanche/Kiowa/Cherokee nonbinary designer, filmmaker and model. In September 2023, Bread officially announced Sutai’s launch beginning with jewelry and accessories then branching out into clothing. As a new brand, Sutai plans on breaking the binaries of fashion, creating looks that dance on the edge of Indigenous design and showcasing Indigenous nonbinary/LGBTQ+2s models. House of Sutai is a marriage between the storytelling of filmmaking and the complexity of fashion through their visually dynamic campaigns.

  • Qaulluq

    Inupiaq designer Uvaŋa Qaulluq’s (Clara McConnell) fashion line is grounded in the transferring of Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat knowledge and teachings. She first learned the arts of skin and fabric sewing from generations of women in her family. Her work is playful yet glamorous, combining luxurious materials with Inupiaq pattern designs and motifs such as Taqalakisaq (butterflies) as a nod to the land and transformation.

  • Randy Leigh Barton

    Neo-Contemporary Navajo Artist Randy L Barton (Diné) is a multi-disciplined, contemporary artist, graphic designer, fashion designer, dancer, DJ and music producer from Winslow, AZ (currently living in Los Angeles) best known for his visionary abstract paintings, live painting performances and innovative style. The foundation of his creations derive from the unique combination of his background in hip hop, graffiti art and the traditional Navajo teachings and ceremonies that began shaping his life at an early age.

  • Tierra Alysia

    Tierra Alysia is a designer from the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of Stewarts Point Rancheria, located in Sonoma County, California. Tierra has a degree in fashion design and attended New York Fashion Academy and Central Saint Martins in London. She is one of the only Native American luxury golf clothing designers in the athletic apparel world. She launched her luxury golf clothing company VIVIDUS SPORTS in April of 2023. Tierra then launched her women’s ready-to-wear line called VIVIDUS RUNWAY at New York Fashion Week the following year. Her thirst for culture, discovering new things and travel has helped her shape her personality as a designer. The inspiration for the collection is a culmination of Tierra’s progress in fashion as a designer and her heritage. Her line showcases her interesting twist on luxury golf, her love of street wear and the culture, and her passion for women’s designer luxury fashion. VIVIDUS is a mixture of the many different sides of Tierra as a designer and a runway show you won’t want to miss!

  • Victoria Kakuktinniq

    Victoria’s Arctic Fashion established in 2014, fuses ancestral northern attire with contemporary flair. Born in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Victoria Kakuktinniq’s Inuit roots run deep, crafting traditional pieces inspired by a lineage of strong Inuit women. Her designs showcase a unique meld of Inuit traditional parka artistry, integrated with sustainable practices. Victoria is a beacon of sustainability and a visionary in Northern Fashion, grounded in her Inuit roots.

  • SWAIA Fashion Director/Producer: Amber-Dawn Bear Robe

    From Siksika Nation, Amber-Dawn Bear Robe is Assistant Faculty of Native Art History in the Museum Studies department at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and Fashion Show Program Director for the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) in Santa Fe, NM. Her recent exhibitions are as contributing curator for Fashion Fictions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, May 27 to October 9, 2023 and Art of Indigenous Fashion at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, August 2022 to January 2023, as well as co-curator for the exhibition Future Imaginaries: Indigenous Art, Fashion, Technology, opening at The Autry in 2024.

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