Artist Profile | Ann-erika White Bird

Ann-erika White Bird is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation.

She began her beading career thirteen years ago, creating moccasins for her relatives.

She is also a rising star in the beadwork scene. In 2011 she was commissioned by the Denver Art Museum to create a piece for their "Wearable Art" collection. This project was a part of an initiative of the museum to educate non-Native and Native audiences about the vibrancy of Native local artists, and White Bird was one of the Denver-area artists asked to create touchable items for the education area of the art museum.

Artist Profile | JT Willie

Navajo artist JT Willie is the brains and creativity behind JTW Bead Designs.

I first saw Willie's work at the Santa Fe Indian Market a couple years back. His designs are striking and bright. My favorite work of his would have to be his jewelry that combines silverwork with beadwork.

Originally from Twin Lakes, New Mexico, Willie started beading as a teenager, learning techniques from his family, beaders, steamstress, and silversmiths. At the age of 16, he learned the style of beadwork from the Kiowa and Comanche Tribes of Oklahoma. He researches different styles of beadwork and incorporates them into his own unique style.

PM Waterlily Shot

This beautiful shot was captured by Michael P. D'Arco at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in Albuquerque, NM, in September 2010.

The model is Janene Falsone-Milks, and she wears a dress designed by Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo). Click on the photo to see a larger version.

(Image © Michael P. D'Arco)

Beyond Business: The Portfolio

Continuing with some profesh advice for anyone pursuing a career in fashion design - here's some tips on the ever-important portfolio.

A professional portfolio is a collection of your best work. It should also contain written information, such as your name and the title of each work. Keep in mind that the overall design of a portfolio presents an important visual image to the viewer. The portfolio itself is a presentation of your design and organizational skills.

Artist Profile | Kristen Dorsey

Beyond Buckskin is proud to introduce the fabulous Ms. Kristen Dorsey.

Dorsey is a proud member of the Chickasaw Nation. She is a silversmith artist who seeks to bring the power and beauty of ancient Southeast Native American symbols to the present through her exquisite jewelry collections.

Always an eye on the past, Dorsey brings the meanings and stories forward with each of her creations.

Ralph Lauren and the American Dream

I've brought up Ralph Lauren before, but I think a couple of things need to be said again.

In these 'trying times' - we look at stories of 'success,' stories that highlight the American Dream, and stories that demonstrate that through hard work we can accomplish a great deal.

Featured Artist | Nicholas Galanin

Nicholas Galanin comes to us from Sitka, Alaska. The traditional lands of his relatives and ancestors, Galanin continues to mark Sitka as a critically important place to his identity and creativity.

As a guy who can find inspiration in the smallest moments in life, Galanin is a true artist who refuses to focus on one medium or category.

We can find Galanin's work in the Peabody Essex museum archives, the Vancouver Art Gallery's hip Beat Nation exhibit, his local Devilfish Gallery space, or on the radio airwaves under the pseudonym Silver Jackson (if it's that, you know, new soul-baring indie kind of music) or Indian Nick (if it's that ndn hip hop style).

Native Treasures

The annual Native Treasures: Indian Arts Festival is on the horizon, and I thought I'd share a quick post about the event.

Native Treasures is touted as Santa Fe’s only museum-quality Indian art show and sale. All of the participating artists are specially invited by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture to represent the best and brightest of the Indian art world. Over 200 Native artists participate, and many of them are included in the Museum’s permanent collection.

Navajo Nouveau

Well the Boutique site is up and running and getting a lot of hits and sales and it seems as though buying the Diné Bizaad bandanas (made by Navajo artist David Sloan) with a set of earrings by Navajo/Hopi artist MaRia Bird is all the rage!

The Yé’ii Tee by Dustin Martin (Navajo) for his company S.O.L.O. is another major hit (see left).

It's cool to see shoppers supporting some real Navajo style!

Beyond Business: FIDM

One excellent resource for young designers is the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.

FIDM offers several top-of-line fashion programs, including Fashion Design, Merchandise Product Development, Merchandise Marketing, Apparel Industry Management, and Beauty Industry Merchandising & Marketing.

Beyond Business: According to Tyra

This business post is actually a condensed repost of one put out by Tyra Banks (yes, that's her jumping to the left).

Now, I’m not really a big fan of Tyra (I mean, she’s cool), but the tips that she gives below are pretty spot on. They give advice on how to become 'CEO of your own life.' It’s cheesy, but it's actually a pretty cool concept. It’s about taking control of your life, your ‘business,’ and setting out steps for the success of you.

She breaks it down, “Whether you’re just gettin’ started, or makin’ your way up the career ladder, the first step to your success is to become CEO of your own life."

Red Lightning Enterprise

Native American fashion designer and quill artist Darlene Perkins brings us her new Red Lightning Enterprise website.

Currently based out of Parshall, North Dakota, Red Lightning Enterprise's art and fashion designs focuses on incorporating Native American quillwork practices.

Representing the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara), Red Lightning designs bracelets, earrings, skirts, dresses, bikini tops and leather pants, which are all adorned with dyed porcupine quills.

Boutique | First Week Thanks

It has been an amazing week! The all new Beyond Buckskin Boutique launched seven days ago and the feedback has been great. Thousands of visitors checked in to see what Indian Country has to say about fashion. We landed sales of Native-made fashion and accessories every day, and I wrote some healthy-sized artist checks this morning for the sales made this past week.

Teacher Resource: The Politics of Fashion

I came across this really cool course blog called The Politics of Fashion, which is a class offered by the Gender and Women's Studies Department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This course is taught by Mimi Thi Nguyen, co-author of Threadbared (a favorite blog of mine).

The following two posts look at the Native-inspired fashion scene as worn by white bodies. The first one focuses on Forever 21 as a case study, while the second looks more at the hipster headdress trend. I hope to construct some of my own teacher resources and curricula material to post on here to help all you educators out there to present compelling, interesting, and relevant material in your classes. For now, here's Nguyen's materials:

Support Native Made, Not Native Knock-Offs

With Native American cultures inspiring and influencing the broader fashion industry these days (you can see it splattered all over fashion magazines and catalogues), I think it's time we start including (actual) Native American artists in this movement, rather than just our awesome inspiring cultures. I mean, we (the people) still exist.

And this is one of the reasons why I decided to launch the Boutique.

Fashion Law: More At Stake Than A Court Victory

FIT Fashion law professor Guillermo Jimenez recently cited Beyond Buckskin in his post Navajo Should Aim Higher Than Court Victory. Anybody interested in the legalities of the Navajo Nation vs. UO case (and the broader implications) should definitely read this well-written article. Jimenez states, "The underlying issue in this case is too important (the global exploitation of the intellectual property of indigenous peoples) to be fully resolved in a courtroom."

Virgil Ortiz's Translator

Virgil Ortiz never ceases to amaze. His projects and ideas are always developing and pushing Native American pottery and fashion to new places.

His latest projects reimagine the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, catapulting the historic event hundreds of years into the future and underlining the importance of the past by making it relevant today and projecting it into the future.

Big Hoops

This is one of the coolest music videos that I have seen in a while - it features two hoop dancers (one of them is Painted Warrior's Kevin Duncan) and a fancy dancer. Awesome.

And can we talk for a second about how Natives come up killer color combinations? Just check out those amazing outfits - all blangin! (a combination of "bling" and "banging" = "blangin", which is exactly what we see with the super amazing styles of the dancers). At one point, I was like, "Ok, Nelly, enough of you, I'd like to see more of the dancers, thank you."

Beyond Buckskin Boutique Launch!

The Boutique is now live! Buy now at beyondbuckskinboutique.bigcartel.com!

Buy Native: Specializing in Native-made clothing, jewelry, and accessories, this new site features some of Indian Country's most creative style-makers. Several different artists represent five categories of fashion, and everything from high-end couture to underground street style is represented.

Sneak Peek: Beyond Buckskin Boutique

Dear readers-

It's been a busy one over here - I have been uploading the new Boutique site with awesome new fashion, jewelry, and accessories, and I'm getting pretty excited for the launch on Monday!

Here are screenshots of some of the items that will be for sale at the Beyond Buckskin Boutique -

Big Hoops Big Things

I recently ran a designer profile on Kevin Duncan (San Carlos Apache/Arikara/Hidatsa/Mandan) and his cool accessories line, Painted Warrior.

Duncan told me that he performed some hoopdancing for a video of Nelly Furtado's hit Big Hoops (left- it was just released in Canada, and is expected to be released in the US on Monday.

BBB Launch | Virgil Ortiz

The Beyond Buckskin Boutique is gearing up for the big launch on Monday, May 7, and we've got Virgil Ortiz as our first Featured Designer!

Ortiz has been making art for as long as he can remember, and he began experimenting with fashion design in high school. Ortiz, along with his cousin Pilar Agoyo and a couple of other cool cats opened a fashion boutique in the early 2000s in Santa Fe. Called HEAT: A Freak Boutique, this store broke out of the stereotypical 'romanticized Indian' that was commercialized throughout Santa Fe's famed central Plaza area.

GON12 | Sharmayne Edgewater Finale

Clothing designed by Navajo fashion designer Sharmayne Edgewater at the Central Visionaries fashion show held during the annual Gathering of Nations Powwow in Albuquerque, NM, April 2012.

GON12 | Disa Tootoosis Finale

Clothing designed by Cree fashion designer Disa Tootoosis at the Central Visionaries fashion show held during the annual Gathering of Nations Powwow in Albuquerque, NM, April 2012.

GON12 | Disa Tootoosis Dress

Dress designed by Cree fashion designer Disa Tootoosis, worn by a model during the Central Visionaries fashion show held during the Gathering of Nations powwow in Albuquerque. Stay tuned... more videos will be uploaded, just as soon as I figure out how to do it! (yay video!)

Faster than a Speeding Bullet

Below is an edited version of an article written about Virgil Ortiz's recent pottery show held at King Galleries in Scottsdale in March. In his latest projects, Ortiz takes the Pueblo Revolt and throws it into the future: imagining a futuristic battle and a resistance that never ended. The review looks at his installation, pottery and video associated with the Velocity show.