Exhibit | Fashionality: Dress and Identity in Contemporary Canadian Art

An upcoming exhibit at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection focuses on fashion and identity in Canada. Guest curated by Julia Pine, Fashionality: Dress and Identity in Contemporary Canadian Art, will be on display May 5 to September 3, 2012.

As a newly coined term, 'fashionality' combines fashion, personality, and nationality, and refers to the interplay between clothing, identity, and culture. This exhibit looks beyond fashion and also explores the use of apparel and the act of adornment in the work of twenty-three active Canadian artists.

Frybread Style

So here's the deal. My good friend Amber-Dawn Bear Robe just moved in with my other good friend Chris Eyre. She was telling me about how she had to go through all his stuff while they were unpacking, and she kept coming across these clothes that SHE KNEW Chris would never wear again. She suggested Goodwill. He said No.

See the clothes are like memorabilia. They remind him of the good times. He'll never frolic in them again, but, good grief, he can't just throw away good times! And neither can we. Hence, the idea for a photo shoot commenced. See, we all have clothes that we just CAN'T PART WITH because they were gifts, they remind us of important times, they are us, they are our history.

At any rate, she was showing me these jackets and hats that were clearly from a different era, and all of them were bedazzled with Indianness, and I thought, "We should do a fashion shoot!"

Misappropriation or Chic?

Hello everybody! I just came across this radio episode that features three important perspectives on the Navajo/UO case. First up is Ben Shelly, the current president of the Navajo Nation. Then, fashion law professor Susan Scafidi weighs in (check out her site, Counterfeit Chic, where you can read her musings on cultural appropriation in fashion). Then we hear from FIT prof Guillermo Jimenez who discusses this topic from an international perspective.

Native Fashion and the Squaw Dress

Ok, this will be my last Lloyd Kiva New post for a while. This one is about LIFE Magazine's article on Squaw dresses (left). Now, the thing about Squaw dresses is.. well, the word 'squaw' is used to describe it.

I've brought up this topic once before (click here to read the post) when I discussed a video that spotlights Southwest fashion and the Squaw dress in the 1950s. The video is rather interesting, so definitely check it out if you have a spare minute.

My dissertation advisor, Dr. Nancy J. Parezo, has conducted research on the Squaw dress, and you can read her article on this fashion phenomenon here. Essentially, she states that the Squaw dress was a categorization label for regional-style dresses in the American Southwest in the late 1940s.

Frankie Welch, Politics, and that Cherokee Scarf

While working as a personal shopper for D.C.-area socialites, Frankie Welch (left) decided she’d rather have them shopping in her own store than sending them somewhere else.

Cabinet members' wives, White House staffers' wives and newswomen of the capital all had Welch shop in New York for them and coordinate their wardrobes. But in 1963, the Cherokee fashionista opened her first boutique and began selling her own designs and accessories.