Native POP in Rapid City is an annual indigenous art market that has traditionally included a catwalk, where artists of the Great Plains showcase their fashion designs.
This year Native POP has been expanded to two days, Saturday and Sunday, July 9 and 10, and another catwalk has been added. The second one features fashions created in one day by emerging Native designers.
This weekend at the indigenous art center Racing Magpie in Rapid City, several emerging designers spent eight hours on Saturday sewing their entries for the upcoming Native POP Catwalk Fashion Design Challenge.
In the cool lower level of Racing Magpie, away from the summer heat, seven women sit at long tables covered with sewing machines, fabric, and ribbon. These designers are working on the garments that might elevate them to the ranks of experienced indigenous fashion designers.
Lafawn Janis is executive director of Native POP, headquartered in Rapid City. She said the fashion designers over the years have come from 40 or 50 tribal regions throughout the Great Plains and bring something of that tribe’s traditions to their work.
“I really appreciate that each designer who has emerged in the last five years, ten years, are so unique and so representative of their people,” she said.
Janis said each tribe has its own significant symbols, such as thunderbolts or hailstones, and if those symbols have spiritual meaning, they probably won’t be included on apparel created for a broad market.
“Definitely I feel designers are aware and respectful to what is, you know, considered traditional regalia versus what they put on their fashion design,” Janis said.
But she said she feels that non-Natives can wear the fashions that are marketed without fear of cultural appropriation.
“You know, that’s the whole point of indigenous artists is to educate and celebrate, because we weren’t able to for so long,” Janis said. “And so I don’t think it’s an insult at all if a non-Native were to wear anybody’s designs. But that is my own personal opinion. I can’t say that for everybody. But I do, I think it’s a beautiful way to honor and celebrate the indigenous people of our nation.”
The emerging designers are competing for one of many prizes awarded during the two-day celebration.
For more information about Native POP 2022, click on this link: http://nativepop.org
