Native Elegance Hits Runway: A review of a Rapid City runway show featuring designs by Darlene Perkins, Mildred Carpenter, and Danita Strawberry. Models and designers from Indian country makin South Dakota look sexy!
Oklahoma Artist Joins NIKE to Create Native Inspired Clothing: A cool write-up about Bunky Echo-Hawk's historic collaboration with Nike - an alliance that's proving to have positive impacts on inspiring Native youth. Follow your dreams, kids!
Crossing Generations: Blogger Miss Mondo highlights Maori fashion designers Keri Wanoa and Hemi Sundgren, the brains behind WHIRI fashion. Miss Mondo is basically the Maori version of Beyond Buckskin, so of course I am an avid reader/follower! (but not in a creepy way!)
The Ephemerals: An all-female Aboriginal collective of artists and curators, the Ephemerals critique the current Tribal Trend and encourage college students to take a deeper look at the cultural implications of Fall's most important trends.
The Racial Construction of Preppiness, part II: The fierce ladies over at Threadbared take a look at a group of young urban males who appropriate and re-mix (and re-fashion) the Americana image constructed by designer Ralph Lauren. That's right, 'Polo low lifes'. Not specifically Native-focused, but a good article on the construction and reconstruction of identity, culture, and class. Super sick.
Futurist Giorgio Sant' Angelo, An Hommage: A model's perspective on Giorgio Sant Angelo, a designer whose vibrant Indigenous-inspired couture was all the rage in the 1970s. He made the Tribal Trend très chic by garbing celebrities such as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Diana Ross, and the Jaggers. (the Jaggers!)
Colorful Rooster Feathers Being Used As Hair Accessories: A creepy article about how one salon is taking the Feather Extensions Trend "a step further" by adding Native hair to the feather look. Get this, "because it's so hard to get rooster feathers," they started incorporating American Indian hair ("because of its strength"). Yikes! Using American Indian hair, they say, offers a more animal-friendly alternative. Scalps anyone?
Style Show Highlights Traditional Dress: The Cherokee Phoenix online news source reviewed a recent Southeastern-Indian fashion show held in Tahlequah. Models of all ages wore clothing from a period ranging from 900 A.D. to the present. Photo highlights include a full-length turkey-feather cape and this pretty Seminole style skirt (pictured above).
NDNs From All Directions from Bear Witness on Vimeo.
And finally, A Tribe Called Red Production video featuring the NDNs From All Directions ultimate remix. Fricka fricka.