Alya Ansari is a creative intellectual from Mumbai, India. She recently graduated from Macalester College with a degree in Media and Cultural Studies and Critical Theory. When not contemplating the cultural temporalities of postcolonialism, she is a messy but meticulous printmaker. Alya is currently in the doctoral program in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society at the University of Minnesota, and plans to stay in school forever.
Niizho-Manidoog: A Two-Spirit Fashion Lookbook
“I believe that fashion makes people happy; it allows people to let others know about themselves by the way they look and dress. Hairstyles, makeup, fragrance, tattoos: it’s more than just clothing,” says designer Delina White of IAmAnishinaabe. This lookbook—showcasing fashions and models featured in our June Indigenous Spirit: Gender Fluid Fashion show—celebrates designs that honor Native tradition, diversity, and nonconformity as imagined through the Anishinaabe term Niizho-Manidoog: the sacred embodiment of two genders.