(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Traditional techniques with a modern twist: Indigenous fashion designers show work in Butte – Daily Montanan [1] ['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- July'] Date: 2023-07-17 BUTTE — Model Shayne Hall of the Blackfeet Tribe walked across the stage in a red dress with white hand prints, a symbol for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in the state, and put her fist up in the air to applause from the crowd. “It was a spiritual experience,” Hall said following the fashion show. Hall was one of more than a dozen models walking in the First Peoples’ Fashion Show at the Montana Folk Festival in Butte on Saturday. Four Native American designers, — who have shown around the world — all said their work was rooted and inspired by their heritage or traditional techniques, with their own twist. The fashion show was brought to life in part by Rep. Donavon Hawk, D-Butte, who first had the idea years ago and helped orchestrate the first Indigenous Fashion Show at the festival last year. On Saturday, Hawk shuttled models and designers from the staging area at the Hotel Finlen up the hill to the stage on Copper Street. Hawk said he was emotional when he saw all the designers’ work. The show took place on a raised platform in a large tent with an estimated hundred people in attendance. “It’s amazing to bring this to my hometown and show Butte and all of Montana our tribes, all our tribes and our culture has to offer,” he said. Yolanda Old Dwarf, owner of Sweet Sage Woman and of the Crow Tribe, designed the dress Hall wore, along with other designs in collections titled “I am fearless,” “Centered” and the latest, “Patience.” Old Dwarf told the crowd she started her business after going through postpartum depression after having her son, who was on stage with her. “I know I’m not the only one,” she said, to applause from the crowd. “Part of my purpose in life and in my businesses is to encourage and help people.” Old Dwarf’s mother, Julie Kreitzberg, was emotional as she said it was “beyond words” seeing her daughter keep traditions alive “so they don’t get lost.” “It makes me well up with so much pride,” Kreitzberg said. Della BigHair-Stump of the Crow Tribe has shown her work at Paris Fashion Week, with one of the dresses in the show Saturday recently returned from being displayed in the Smithsonian Museum, but BigHair-Stump said she loved showing her work in Montana. “Montana’s home,” she said. BigHair-Stump, of Designs by Della, said she went from watching her grandparents beading as she was growing up to incorporating those techniques into her work today, with ribbon work and beading predominantly featured in the designs in the collection shown Saturday. Rebekah Jarvey, a Chippewa Cree designer fresh off of a collaboration with Nike, showed designs in Saturday’s show that were recently featured at a fashion show at the Cannes Indigenous Fashion Festival earlier this year. Jarvey described the “Love and Fashion” collection shown Saturday as fun and vibrant, saying her color palette is neon, with the clothes predominantly featuring neon green and pink. “I think everyone should wear neon at least once in their life,” she said. “Get brave!” The collection is also more price-friendly and ready-to-wear as opposed to her more pricey luxury lines. “I’m happy that the Butte Folk Festival was able to give us Indigenous designers this platform to show and share our culture,” Jarvey told the Daily Montanan. “The Indigenous fashion industry is really brand new, and it’s just beginning, and we’re building it.” She said there was no Indigenous fashion industry when she was growing up in Rocky Boy’s Reservation, with the industry focused on Euro-centric standards, but things are starting to change. She said this will be her seventh year running an Indigenous fashion show in Rocky Boy’s Reservation. Jarvey was also featured by Vogue as one of “15 Indigenous Artists to Know” from the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, something Jarvey said was a career highlight. Jarvey said something she wanted to communicate was not to compare Indigenous designers. “Every designer is unique with their own brand and their own aesthetic,” she said. A model in Carrie Moran McCleary’s show wore a cobalt blue top hat featuring a beaded design, a piece that caught many eyes at her vendor tent at the First Peoples’ Market. Sitting at McCleary’s vendor booth for her brand Plains Soul Designs prior to the show, multiple festival goers oohed and aahed at that piece in particular. McCleary, who is Little Shell and Chippewa Cree but lives on the Crow Reservation, said her work is centered around the theme, “We’re still here.” “Our tribes are still here. We’re still functioning. We’re still honoring our traditions and our value systems,” McCleary said. “And fashion shows are a really great way for us to be visibly seen by the larger Montana community, or wherever we’re showing.” “We’re showing modern clothing because we’re modern people, and that’s what we wear,” she said. “We still know how to make clothing that honors our original designs – how we sewed, how we beaded, (and) that includes the colors and shapes and the authenticity.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/07/17/traditional-techniques-with-a-modern-twist-indigenous-fashion-designers-show-work-in-butte/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/