During New York Fashion Week, Jamie Okuma became the first Native American designer to show as part of the official CFDA calendar. The Luiseño and Shoshonne Bannock designer hosted a digital presentation this season, where she debuted her new collection of ready-to-wear featuring pieces designed with her original print work. Her elegant dresses and caftans featured imagery of dentalium shells, flowers, elk teeth, and butterflies. “A lot of the flowers were taken from my own images,” Okuma told Vogue during a preview. “They were taken at my studio, or places that I’ve travelled. Flowers are like a diary for me—representing certain times in my life.”
Throughout the week, the first-ever Indigenous NYFW—a program hosted by Relative Arts—also took place at the Grace Exhibition Space in the East Village, bringing three full days of shows featuring various Indigenous talents. Highlights included a jewelry-centered presentation, featuring Copper Canoe Woman’s ovoid-shaped body jewelry, and Joe Big Mountain’s colorful porcupine quillwork. The runway presentations also featured graphic streetwear by Original Landlords, hand-woven pieces from brother-sister duo Tyler and Naiomi Glasses, and Justin Jacob Louis’s sleek suiting. The assortment of styles and mixture of tribes was refreshing—and showcased the vast diversity found within the pillars of Indigenous design.
