Fashion HEAT | Jamie Okuma

You've undoubtedly seen her work before - either in feature articles in magazines, or in a viral Facebook picture of some killer fully-beaded boots, or at the Heard and Santa Fe Indian Markets snatching up the Best of Show ribbon. Her name is Jamie Okuma, and she is one young, cool beadwork artist who is making waves in the art and fashion worlds. She's a true genius, and whether you're into 'traditional' Native quill and beadwork clothing, or rockin' contemporary Native chic, we all flip when we see her work.

Okuma showed her first fashion collection at the Fashion HEAT event held in August, and I caught up with her to ask her about the show.

Fashion HEAT | David Gaussoin

Several established and cutting-edge Native American fashion designers showed in Santa Fe at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts during the Santa Fe Indian Market. Organized by First Nations art curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, the event was a huge hit and a 2013 round 2 is in the works.

The show started with designs (see left) selected and organized by award-wining artist Connie Tsosie Gaussoin, which highlighted how modern Native fashion has been around for a while, but it also shows how the Gaussoin family has played such an important role as a mainstay in thinking about Native clothing in an avant-garde way. I caught up with Connie's son, David Gaussoin, who is also an award-winning artist, and asked him a couple of questions about his family's participation in the Fashion HEAT event.

BB Facebook | Best of August

I post a lot of fashion news on the Beyond Buckskin Facebook Fan Page. It's a great way to share info quickly without having to prep and write an entire post on it.

However, if I only post it to Facebook, well, Facebook has a tendency to kind of 'swallow' good images, links to articles or videos in the sense that, in general, we don't really want to go through all the scrolling to dig it up again.

So I'm going to start doing a 'Best of' post for each month where I highlight some of the coolest images, the most interesting articles, the biggest misappropriators, and the neatest videos. So, now that we're a week into September, it's safe to look back at August and pick out some good ones, so, fashionistas, here you go:

Fashion HEAT | Consuelo Pascual

I got the great opportunity to interview Navajo/Mayan fashion designer Consuelo Pascual about her newest designs that debuted at the Fashion HEAT show held in Santa Fe during Indian Market.

Organized by Native American and First Nations art scholar and curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, this free event was one of the most-talked about Native-focused fashion shows of the past year and featured some of the most prominent Native American fashion designers producing today.

In the interview below, Pascual talks to BB about the ins and outs of fashion design: from the structural to the ephemeral, fashion is an exciting art form, and is one that is gaining a better footing in the American Indian art world.

Orlando Dugi Talks Fashion HEAT

I caught up with Navajo jewelry and fashion designer Orlando Dugi to chat about the recent Fashion HEAT show that was held at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts during the Santa Fe Indian Market. Organized by contemporary Native American and First Nations art scholar and curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, the fashion show was one of the most talked about events during the weekend. The show featured some of Native America's topnotch fashion designers, and there's already talk about planning for Fashion HEAT 2013 (that's what I like to hear!).

Dugi is one of my personal favorite designers because he is constantly pushing himself and creating new items to show off. I remember when I first met him during the Heard Indian Market, and it was then that he said he's starting to dabble in fashion design.