Our collaborative event with Beyond Buckskin, event name: BBB x P4, in late February was both a beautiful launch for our blog and a successful gathering of Phoenix/ AZ people. The BBB x P4 event provided an intimate preview to today’s local Native art market’s designers of clothing to jewelry ranging from street-wear to avant-garde styles.
Among the designers present was Summer Peters (Saginaw Ojibwe). Her asymmetrical beaded necklace had an eye-catching and non-traditional aesthetic. Her daughter wore the beaded piece on the runway along with a bracelet by Wayne Nez Gaussoin (see above image, left). Summer’s family nurtured her beading skills since she was 7. Today, she continues to use the Michigan Woodland designs, which is a geometric style based on flowers and leaves, in a bold way. She has been showing her wearable designs since 2010. She showed at the 2013 annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in early March, and will show at the 2013 SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market in August. As you can see she isn’t staying within the boundaries of what is expected from jewelry, much less beaded jewelry.
“There are many people that make statement jewelry. I like crazy and people might not understand it; but I’m okay with that. It won’t stifle my creativity. It is still Native [because] we are Native. Also, it is cool to be part of the movement. [The movement is essentially] to be true to your roots but to be different with your work and have guts. Everything evolves.”
Summer’s statement is true. The BBB x P4 event is part of a particular movement that is shedding light on a diverse array of Natives today. In the photos below you will see the creations by talented designers worn by Phoenix/ AZ residents and local artists (Tony Duncan, Jacob Meders, and J. Slim). Each person is Native, different, and all had the guts to be a “model” that night. The guys and ladies of Arizona State University sorority Alpha Pi Omega and fraternity Phi Sigma Nu were wonderful, as they were constant helpers on and off the runway that day. One model switched up her day role as a registered nurse to be part of our event. And, we were taken away by the cool skills of our younger/ smaller models as they walked the runway, some for their first time.
Click on a photo, below, for the slideshow. Enjoy!
Check the Beyond Buckskin Boutique, http://shop.beyondbuckskin.com/, for more on the creations you see here.
Jewelry/ accessory designers: MaRia Bird, Autumn Dawn for The Soft Museum, David Gaussoin, Wayne Nez Gaussoin, Candace Halcro, Summer Peters, Andrea Preston, Ista Ska, David Sloan, and TSOul. Clothing designers: Alanzo Edzerza, Topah Spoonhunter, and Jared Yazzie for OXDX. Designers not shown in this post: Jamie Okuma and JT Willie. (Their creations will be shown in a separate post showing more runway and post-fashion show captures.)
Hair and makeup: Jamie Dallas, Andrea Noline-Deer, and Amber Benally.
*Refer to copyright information in the ABOUT section.
presence 4.0 