These 10 Designers Are Beloved by Two-Spirit and Queer Native Americans
| 02/06/22
For Indigenous folks, powwows can mean different things -- from competition and community to great fry bread and bison burgers. But each February, as we flock to San Francisco's 11th Annual Bay Area American Indian Two Spirit Powwow, the largest LGBTQ+ gathering of its kind in the U.S., a powwow is also an act of decolonization. In this safe space, gender roles historically imposed by white settlers are eliminated; men dance in jingle dresses, women drum, and trans people, especially, get to present as who we really are.
Finally, after a decade of Indigenous Fashion week and a lot of cooption (from white girls selling medicine bags to Mac and Urban Outfitters using "Navajo" prints makeup cases and underwear), the fashion industry is finally taking queues from actual Native folks including Two-Spirit, queer indigenous, and LGBTQ+ allied designers.
Geronimo Louie
Two-Sprit Chiricahua Apache and Dine fashion designer Geronimo Louie is a viral hit and was named an LGBTQ+ TikTok Trail Blazer (his ribbon work even made it into Vogue).
Here are some other designers to support.
Photo by@geronimo.louie
Emme Studios
Emme Studios designer Korina Emmerich's Pendleton fabric couture is among my favorites; her Diorte skirt has been on my wish list for a year. But her newest Drugstore Rodeo collection features ungendered clothing and sexy fluid models, including Isaia Halan (featured in the queer film B-Boy Blues) in this Canarsee coat made with Pendleton fabric. Shown here with rainbow jewelry from another Indigenous artist, Tania Larsson. ($1,500) emmestudios.com
Photo by Two Hawks
Photo @twohawksyoung
Jewelry @tania.larsson
Hair @deyah_cassadore
Makeup @ionamouramakeup
Emme Studios
Emme Studios
Indi City
The Canadian, Two-Spirit, BIPOC jewelry designers behind Indi City create these gorgeous, sometimes waist-length earrings like my faves, the foot-long Medicine Florals, which are laser-cut acrylic lightweight with hypoallergenic hooks. ($95 and up) indicity.ca
Indi City
Indi City
Indi City
Indi City
Indi City
Ginew
Owned by a Portland couple who are LGBTQ+ allies, Ginew works with Two-Spirit models and queer photographers and is the only major Native American-owned denim line. Ginew incorporates elements of their Ojibwe, Oneida, and Mohican heritage to express a contemporary Native American voice fused with modern style. The unisex Dyani White Hawk-designed Facing East Wax Rider coats boast Ginew's Pendleton wool-blanket lining. The design was inspired by a motorcycle jacket-wearing grandfather who commuted weekly from the Mohican Indian Reservation to weld for Harley Davidson during the 1950s and '60s. Equal parts style and homage. ($635) GinewUSA.com
Photo by Kari Rowe
Models are Aaron Tellez, Nyamul, and Haatepah
Ginew
Ginew
Photo by Nate Lemue
Ginew
Lesley Hampton
Lesley Hampton is an Anishinaabe Mohawk, award-winning designer, and creative director who raises mental health awareness, body positivity, and authentic representation through fashion. She often creates works for Two Spirit folks (like the Rainbow Warrior skirt) and collaborates with queer creators like Cree designer Scott Wabano, who crafted a jingle jacket with historical ties to the 1900s Spanish flu pandemic. Hampton is one of the only Native designers of athleisure and yoga wear, but her skirts, dresses, and pantsuits like this one (modeled by Sarain Fox, the Anishinaabekwe host of the Viceland show Rise) reign supreme. (prices vary) LesleyHampton.com
Photography: @billiechiasson
Model: @sarainfox
Hair/Makeup: @michsilvmakeup
Stylist: @scottwabano
Earrings: @assinewejewelry
Lesley Hampton
Lesley Hampton
Manitobah Mukluks
Alaska Natives live and die in Mukluks and Native-owned Manitobah (founder Sean McCormick is Metis) makes some of the best. The glacier grip pads on the treads of these Tamarack pair mean you can literally walk on ice without falling. Designed by Jamie Okuma -- a favorite of 2S fashionistas -- whose mother Sandra created albums covers for Cher and Lynyrd Skynyrd. ($360) Manitobah.com
Manitobah Mukluks
Or you can try these Corrine Hunt Tamarack pair, designed by First Nation artist Corrine Hunt (who incidentally designed the uniforms for the Canadian Olympic Snowboard team and knows how to keep warm). ($359) Manitobah.com
Manitobah Mukluks
Manitobah Mukluks
Lehuauakea
The young eponymous designer Lehuauakea identifies as mahu (a nonbinary or third-gender person of Indigenous Hawaiian heritage) and their HO`OPILI chunky, hand-carved salvage wood studs with paua shell inlays feel that way too. ($40)Lehuauakea.com
Lehuauakea
Jeffrey Gibson
The work of Choctaw and Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson plays on the ideas around "chosen family" and pronouns related to gender, a call for queer and Indigenous empowerment. This mixed-media, beaded People Like Us doll is just one example of his work. (prices upon request) RobertsProjectsLA.com
NTVS
Streetwear fave NTVS offers great modern tees from Native artists like Steven Paul Judd and other artists like "Not for Salem," which has a stencil spray over an old advertisement that was used to sell Indigenous land to colonists. ($30) TheNTVS.com
NTVS
OCDX
Another great unisex hand-printed family T-shirt maker OCDX has empowering and cheeky offerings like this one about America's "discovery." ($30)OXDXClothing.com
Eighth Generation
Adapted from their gorgeous Buffalo Medicine Throw Blanket, these crew socks from designer John Isaiah Pepion let you rock Blackfeet art and buffalo energy on the sly. ($15) Eighthgeneration.com
Jamie Okuma
Queer ally Jamie Okuma is a Native American designer that dresses and mentors LGBTQ+ indigenous Two-Spirit fashionistas like Geo Neptune. Her stuff can be showy or simple. Her Butterfly Jacket is ready to party, with its eagle-feathered, butterfly design with floral quillwork, dentalium (tooth or tusk shells), and brass sequin print on a neoprene bodice. Or this Abstract elk and swallow t-shirt. Her clothing is non-gendered clothing, sizing is unisex, and ranges from XXS to 5XL. ($70)Jokuma.com
Jamie Okuma
Jamie Okuma
Don’t Miss These, Too
You can't wear it, but you should definitely read this new tiny tome from Ten Speed Press. Two-Spirit folks are included in Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene (that includes Geo Neptune, an Out100 honoree and Maine's first Two-Spirit, transgender, nonbinary elected official).
International Indigenous Fashion Week
Don't forget how to check out the tenth anniversary of International Indigenous Fashion Week this June in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It features Indigenous designers, models, and musicians representing the various First Nations from all across Turtle Island. A not-for-profit organization, IIFW is the first 100 percent Indigenous female-owned & operated Fashion Week. (There are also events in New York, Paris, and London as well). Indigenousfashionweek.ca/
Photos by AnnMarie Aase/Indigenousfashionweek.ca
Toronto Indigenous Fashion Week
There's also Toronto Indigenous Fashion Week which scaled back during the pandemic but introduced the world to designers like Curtis Oland, a member of the Lil'Wat Nation, who is currently working out of Berlin (this is his 2019 line, "Delicate Tissue," about the precarious and sometimes volatile relationships we share with the land, and with one another). IFWtoronto.com
Photos courtesy IFWtoronto.com
