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Picture it: a space bustling with shops selling Native-made clothing, jewelry, and accessories, and customers of all ages wearing garments handmade by their favorite Native American designer. You can tell by the slogan on the tee, the technique of the beadwork, or the color combination of the outfit who the designer is or from which tribe they hail. This space is vibrant, full of texture, movement, and sound.
These spaces exist, as community cultural events, feast days, ceremonial dances, or powwows, and they have blossomed over the years to become important sources of inspiration for contemporary Native American fashion designers.
Because of the horrific onslaught of forced assimilation throughout the 1800s and beyond, much of our cultural “stuff” has been literally stripped from our people. Our great-grandparents, regardless, stand proud in black-and-white photographs wearing denim trousers and calico dresses. If this is what it takes to survive and persevere in their own sacred lands, then they will do it.
Fast-forward nearly 100 years to the present time, to us great-grandkids, leading the great-great-grandkids to proudly wear their identity on their sleeves. Right now, it is the easiest it has ever been in the past century to acquire and wear Native-made fashion (even in the 1990s, you were subjected to discrimination if you signaled through your clothing to others that you were anything other than “American,” or, you know, a generic version of white people).
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Shealyse wears the Eagle Wings crop tee, Stevie gown, and Statement Leather Tassel Earrings, by Jessica R. Metcalfe
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Mikinaak Leadership Beaded Medallion Necklaces by Jessica R. Metcalfe
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Alexis wears the Liquid Silver Ribbon Gown by Jessica R. Metcalfe
But, we live in an extraordinary time. Thanks to the democratization of fashion, due to globalization and access to resources, we now have channels to learn, create, and sell. With the movement to “wire the rez” and provide high-speed internet access to remote reservation communities, Native American artists and designers can easily share and sell their work online. We can live in a tiny town of less than 500 people and still build a successful brand.
Much has happened in the fashion industry in recent decades, and while strides have been made around diversity and inclusion, colonial and racist notions persist. Fashion was never exclusively European, but we have been actively ignored, degraded, or excluded from the written documentation of fashion’s history. Selective exclusion does not mean we did not exist. Native American men and women have always created high-quality, innovative garments and accessories that adapted over time and aligned with trends in their communities. Yes, our ancestors were stylish, and by looking at a garment—at the cut of the fabric, the materials utilized, the embellishments featured, and the colors incorporated—a fine scholar with an understanding of trends can establish the era in which the garment was made and worn.
In my mind,
Diversity of thought will drive the Indigenization process. Even within our small world of Native fashion there is great diversity in defining (or not defining) what makes Native-made fashion Native. Some will say it is the materials used (like animal hides or woven sheep wool), others will say that it is the designs (like family symbols passed down), others will proclaim that it has more to do with our teachings (like infusing meaning into each piece, promoting ideas of tribal sovereignty through subversive streetwear, or considering Mother Earth with sustainable practices, etc.), and still others will maintain that any garment made by any person who self-identifies as Native and is recognized by their tribal communities as members is Native fashion.
Historically, Western/European fashion has been an exclusive field, but the rest of us are eager and more than happy to break down the gate and show the potential of just how much more wild, expressive, regal, and immaculate fashion can be.
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