An OpEd in honour of Indigenous History Month by Anishinaabe Creative Director Amanda May Daly.
Photography AUDREY BAUNEZ Style AMANDA MAY DALY
Makeup GWEN PERKINS Hair KERRIGAN BOWEY
Photo Assist SOPHIA HIRT Stylist Assist LINDSAY TANNER
Talent
JILLIAN DION Plains Cree, Métis, French Canadian, Saddle Lake First Nation
JOE BUFFALO Samson Cree Nation
KEVIN GOSNELL Nisga’a and Lilwat Nation
MATHEW DELORME-KING Cree and Ukrainian
Matt: REBECCA BAKER GRENIER jacket Jillian: REBECCA BAKER GRENIER dress and breastpiece. TREE OF LIFE BEADS earrings Kevin: REBECCA BAKER GRENIER top and skirt. TREE OF LIFE BEADS ermine earrings.
In my work as a fashion stylist and Creative Director I am blessed to regularly work with other Indigenous creatives from around the world. I am a mixed Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe woman) from Mattagami First Nation in Northern Ontario with ancestry from England, Ireland and French Canadian settlers. My work has taken me from Canada to the UK and the US and allowed me to work with brands from Europe, Canada, Aotearoa and Indigenous communities worldwide. As an artist and an academic I am interested in how colonialism and genocide have intersected with the traditional techniques, knowledges and stories of Indigenous cultures from around the globe. I am driven to learn what the survival of Indigenous art and fashion can tell us about the past and the future. The artistic oeuvre’s of colonised, repressed and marginalised cultures bear witness to that which has been hidden or obscured by time; and our collective stories hold the secrets of surviving colonial and fascist regimes.
Indigenous fashion, designed by First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Native American, Maori and other First Peoples from around the world is a modern medium for the transmission of culture and oral history, a representation of cultural knowledge that transcends time, exploring our relationships to space and place. Indigenous traditional skills, technique and ways of knowing and being provide us with glimpses of who we are and who our grandparents were, but also who our grandchildren will be.
Matt: INDIGINIZE CREATION hat.
In the below essay, I share some of my research, reflections, and opinions on the concepts of luxury, authenticity and the continued imagining of Indigenous Futures. I will present a case for Indigenous Futurism and decolonial design as a key facet of the development of the future of luxury fashion. All opinions expressed are mine alone, intended to provoke thought and reflection, and are not intended to represent the opinions of brands or entities other than myself.
Some of the most fulfilling work for me happens when I’m at home in Vancouver, BC where I live as a guest on the unceded traditional lands of of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We are lucky to have a vibrant Indigenous fashion and arts scene, largely due to the vision and commitment of the founders of Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week. https://www.vifw.ca/ Being in community with other Indigenous creatives here in Vancouver has blessed me with the opportunity to regularly work with some of my favourite local Indigenous brands and creatives. I regularly find myself awestruck at the beauty, creativity, passion and vision of my peers. One of the most rewarding parts of what I do is simply being able to apply the skills I learned working in the European fashion industry towards supporting other artists and creatives as they upend Eurocentric ideals of beauty and fashion through embracing the teachings, techniques and love of their cultures.
Joe: NEECHIE BY NATURE shirt. INDIGINIZE CREATION hat.
In creating and supporting our own spaces for self expression and mutual appreciation, and celebration for Indigenous artists and designers that exist outside of colonial systems Indigenous designers are practicing a powerful form of resistance against the erasure of our cultures. On Turtle Island – the continent known as North America, organisations such as Indigenous Fashion Arts https://indigenousfashionarts.com/ , SWAIA https://www.swaia.org/ , and Native Fashion Week Santa Fe https://www.nativefashionweeksantafe.com/ regularly showcase the work of Indigenous artist and designers on the runway, with creative teams and models of Indigenous ancestry from all over the world. Coverage of last year’s SWAIA show included this headline from WWD that stopped me dead in my tracks. “The Next Alexander McQueen, a Rush of Rooster Feathers and Trippy Quills: Indigenous Designers Celebrate Heritage and Innovation at SWAIA Native Fashion Show” https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/swaia-native-fashion-show-trends-1236547758/
The “New McQueen” they refer to is Plains Cree designer Jontay Kahm, who is set to become the first Indigenous designer to graduate with an MFA from Parsons this year. They are not wrong, designers like Jontay Kahm ARE the future of luxury fashion, and for reasons that may surprise people.
However, when we consider the role Indigenous design will play in the future of luxury fashion it’s essential to first address the issue of Cultural Appropriation in fashion, why it happens and why that matters, and how brands and consumers can appreciate, collaborate with, and how consciously become ethical consumers of the work of Indigenous creatives. I want to illustrate my point by telling a couple of stories about brand identity, intellectual property, and authenticity and the intersections of these ideals.
Jillian: INDI CITY The Matriarch Speaks tech regalia and jewellery. SECTION 35 hat.
Just after Christmas 2024, a scandal erupted in the world of luxury goods. Walmart, the famed preferred department store of the North American working class, released an $80 dollar dupe of the iconic Hermes Birkin Bag which quickly went viral and was nicknamed “The Wirkin”. Word spread quickly and debates erupted as to whether this was good (the democratisation of Fashion!) or bad (intellectual property theft, bad for the image of the design, might lower market value). Predictably, most Birkin collectors were quick to respond with the elite’s favourite response, what does a person that collects 5 and 6 figure Birkins think about all this? Ladies and gentlemen of the court, they simply didn’t care because they know they have the authentic article. If all of this smacks of “Let them eat cake” to you, you’re not alone. The strength of the Hermes brand identity is thus that even having their iconic design reinterpreted by Walmart serves to only strengthen their brand awareness and positioning. That’s the power of authenticity, brand awareness and brand identity.
Next, I want to take you back to early December when a different kind of scandal broke out. This time it was in the First Nations, Métis, Inuit, Native American people of North America’s online community where posts began circulating about a bag in Valentino’s pre-Spring 2025 Campaign that bore a striking resemblance to Métis-Dene bandolier bag. It was not long before the Indigenous community online called out the appropriation of an unknown person’s Intellectual Property. Within a day, a prominent Indigenous scholar had identified the exact bag that had inspired the piece as one that had been sold at auction earlier in 2023 or 2024. When I began researching for this essay I found that the posts of the scholar had disappeared from the internet and the bag in question had disappeared off of Valentino’s site. Certainly, Valentino’s silent, yet potent response speaks louder than words.
Removing the piece from the collection was absolutely the right thing to do. Whilst I maintain that it is important to reflect critically and to speak truth to power, I also believe it’s important to acknowledge when steps (even incomplete steps) are taken to right wrongs. This was unmistakably a big step in the right direction uncharacteristic of luxury houses. I’ve raised this instance as an example not to dunk on Valentino, but to remark on the step forward in terms of respecting Indigenous Intellectual Property rights. I could make a list as long as my arm of major European fashion houses who’ve directly appropriated Indigenous art, been called out for it, and simply ignored the discourse altogether.
Joe: SECTION 35 tee, jersey and pants. Matt: SECTION 35 tee, jersey and shorts.
I believe it’s important to give credit where it’s due and that it’s incredibly important for Indigenous communities to vocally engage with brands and to encourage these brands to take action and show responsibility when instances of appropriation are brought to light.
Here’s the thing. The originality of Indigenous designs, ways of being, ways of seeing and relation to our environments have been inspiring European artists, designers and scholars for centuries. Yet when we look at the practice of cultural appropriation through the lens of authenticity as a benchmark of luxury we see how cultural appropriation victimises not only the appropriated culture, but also the end consumer. When a brand removes the connection to space, place and culture from an Indigenous design the result is an empty forgery. Thanks to capitalism, when a working class brand copies a luxury brand it’s a huge story, a big debate, it’s juicy. Thanks to colonialism, when a luxury brand appropriates from an Indigenous culture like the Métis people the dialogue is often contained within Indigenous media circles, never to reach the press of the dominant culture’s mainstream.
In my opinion, there’s a long way to go in educating other countries about the inherent value and intellectual property of the art, fashion and culture of Indigenous peoples. Anecdotally, having lived in Europe for 15 years whilst working in Ready-To-Wear fashion I can say that colonial education systems have gaslit entire generations about the continued existence and practice of our cultures. This is definitely changing, but not nearly fast enough.
Kevin: REBECCA BAKER GRENIER Sea Serpent top and skirt. TREE OF LIFE BEADS ermine earrings.
A couple of years ago, my friend Kaija Heitland of Indigenous Nouveau https://www.indigenousnouveau.com/ , a remarkably intelligent and talented artist and designer, introduced me to the The First Nations Principles of OCAP; ” OCAP® asserts that First Nations, Métis, Inuit people alone have control over data collection processes in their communities, and that they own and control how this information can be stored, interpreted, used, or shared”. Though the original artisan is unknown, the previously mentioned Métis-Dene bandolier bag can be roughly traced to a community who are the true owners of this design and Intellectual Property, which is protected by the principles of OCAP. I wish more people knew about OCAP because it really does provide a framework for protecting the integrity of our knowledge, art, and data as Indigenous creatives. We operate in a global market that has over and over again proved its fascination with Indigenous style, culture and aesthetics, whilst historically sidestepping the obligation to appropriately credit and compensate Indigenous creatives without recourse.
Circling back to the Wirkin, I believe that was a huge International story because it’s novel, it directly addressed capitalism and classism, and it had an egalitarian flavour. Also, it’s something that people were taught to care about through careful image management, and brand recognition strategies by Hermes that promote the exclusivity of the Birkin. This handbag, named for bohemian actress and singer Jane Birkin who was an artist and mother, needed a tote to carry all her books, paints and something that matched her bohemian lifestyle. The most expensive Birkin sold at Sotheby’s for $450,000. That’s equivalent to a (walk in closet) studio apartment in Vancouver (where I live and property values are insane)! My observation is that people enjoyed that story because of a sense of class schadenfreude.The authenticity of the Birkin is what makes it more valuable than a Wirkin, even if at 20 paces they look relatively the same to an untrained eye. This matters to people who consume luxury fashion.When it comes to the cultural appropriation issue, it’s all too often a different story when it doesn’t need to be. Placing a designer logo over a replica of a design from another culture and presenting it as an exclusive and original design is most distinctly not authentic and yet it is a shockingly common practice which undermines the values, originality, exclusivity and authenticity of the brand identities the consumers are paying top dollar to buy into. So, why does this continue to happen?
The answer is twofold; there is the unrelenting capitalism that drives the leading brands in the fashion industry to produce new collections at breakneck speed combined with the aforementioned pervasive influence of colonial narratives that paint certain cultures as inactive, extinct, uncivilised or “less than” and ripe for consumption.
Joe: SECTION 35 jacket and shirt.
I can tell you from my 25 years of experience in the fashion industry that large fashion houses are under pressure to produce 5+ collections a year per brand. This means that assistant designers and accessories designers are often tasked with relying heavily on the influence of items brought in for “inspiration” by the creative team. From a legal standpoint, a brand needs only to be able to point out 7 small changes to the original design to avoid an Intellectual Property lawsuit (I know this from personal experience when a large athletics brand put out pieces that bore a striking resemblance to the work of a Canadian designer who I was working with in London).
In luxury fashion authenticity matters, but only when the brand or culture in question can market that authenticity, and trademark and defend its intellectual property rights. Everyone knows cultural appropriation is wrong, but it’s still a very common practice as brands attempt to cut corners by presenting the work of artisans from Indigenous communities without remuneration. With regards to North American Indigenous culture – this appropriation of our sacred ways of knowing and being really took hold in the 1970s when the appropriation of Native American design established an iconic counterculture fashion aesthetic which rocketed into the mainstream. The “boho” or bohemian aesthetic we all know and love is a derivative of Native American, African and South Asian cultural dressing.
In looking around online I’ve found references to appropriated Indigenous design in mainstream culture going back over 50 years. The website Beyond Buckskin is a wonderful resource when it comes to the relationship between Indigenous peoples and our historical influence on the mainstream fashion industry. https://www.beyondbuckskin.com/
Joe: SECTION 35 tee, jersey and pants. Matt: SECTION 35 tee, jersey and shorts.
As the Boho Chic aesthetic from the 2010’s is reinterpreted for a new audience, both in streetwear and high fashion circles I would like to encourage folks to look deeper into the foundations of these trends. Content creator Oumnia Boualam https://www.instagram.com/oumnia.boualam/?hl=en has a wealth of fascinating short form content on decolonising fashion on her page that I really encourage folks to check out.
Bearing those concepts in mind, I applaud the social critique and artistry of Indigenous brands like Stevens and Snyder, whose $30,000 beaded “Birkin” replicas made a splash in Vogue after premiering on the SWAIA runway last year. https://stevensandsnyder.com/mercantile/p/beaded-birkin-25-mz355 With these groundbreaking pieces Stevens and Snyder are effectively subverting European ideals of exclusivity with razor sharp wit and insight. It should be noted that Stevens and Snyder make it clear that their product is a replica, and cite the source of the bag’s shape and design as the Birkin 25. These pieces are more than just replicas of an iconic product, these bags are cleverly positioning traditional knowledge and skills such as traditional Indigenous beadwork and brain tanning deer hides as the rightful equals to Italian leather craftsmanship and French couture beading techniques. I could not dream of making that point more elegantly with my words than they have with this bag. So, what I will say is that if I had $30,000 I’d be investing in one, because these young designers know what’s up and are leading the way for the future of luxury.
Matt: INDIGINIZE CREATION hat.
This kind of contemporary Indigenous design connects all people to the Earth in a way that is practical, tangible, relevant and verdant with possibility as we negotiate, advocate for and create better futures. It is so incredibly important to champion and advocate for Indigenous creatives to get the recognition they deserve. This in turn provides so many pathways for building compassion, resilience, empathy and self worth in our youth, who will inherit the responsibility for the stewardship of these stolen lands we call home. In a deepening climate crisis, it is imperative to continue to look to Indigenous people as the rightful stewards of the world’s lush natural resources. The retention of land based knowledge, art, design and culture worldwide and the health of our planet are bound indelibly by a sacred contract. I envisage a near future where discerning customers from cultures around the world know that it’s not only ok to buy from Indigenous creatives, but where folks worldwide are actively seeking out authentic garments and accessories from Indigenous designers. I see a future where luxury houses’ commitments to authenticity and innovation lead them to collaborate directly and respectfully with Indigenous designers, who will get paid what they are worth and will in turn, bring opportunities for economic growth to their home communities. This kind of collaboration is already happening in the USA with Nike’s incredible N7 Collection and Ralph Lauren’s breathtakingly beautiful collections with artist Diné Naiomi Glasses. Perhaps their European counterparts would do well to follow these companies’ leads. It is not only possible, I believe they have proven it can be both ethical and profitable.
The next time you think of Indigenous fashion and design I would like you to visualise a space where materials such as ethically sourced hides, furs, quills, shells and plant based materials, labour, techniques, knowledge and inspirations are all hyper locally land based and where all other materials possible are locally sourced. The creation and production of Indigenous design work creates financial and social infrastructure within the community and supports traditional methods of both preserving culture, oral histories and skills which are experiencing a resurgence as more and more people gain exposure to culturally restorative practices. This in turn, creates an independent economy for Indigenous artisans within communities that creates jobs, affirms the value in knowing and practicing traditional techniques, and provides long term transferable skills training opportunities for folks outside of the colonial job market. This is a true niche; it is place specific, culture specific, it is sacred, and it is beautiful. Indigenous design is worth buying into, championing, supporting, and fighting for. Indigenous design is modern and ancient at the same time. Indigenous design is luxury, authentic and exclusive by nature – as it cannot authentically be replicated, ever.
Jillian: INDI CITY The Matriarch Speaks tech regalia and jewellery. SECTION 35 hat.
Indigenous design isn’t just having a moment. Indigenous design is the moment – and you’re respectfully invited.
References
Factora, J. (2024, December 16). Lily Gladstone Calls Out Valentino for Alleged Indigenous Appropriation. Them. Retrieved February 28, 2025, from https://www.them.us/story/lily-gladstone-valentino-bag-indigenous-appropriation
Pearl, D., & Mzizi, Y. (2025, January 3). Why the ‘Walmart Birkin’ Struck a Nerve. The Business of Fashion. Retrieved February 28, 2025, from https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/marketing-pr/the-walmart-birkin-conversation/
Scolfield, G. (n.d.). Valentino theft of Metis design. Facebook.
‘Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol. 3, No. 1, 2014, pp. I-XII’ titled:
Fugitive indigeneity: Reclaiming the terrain of decolonial struggle through Indigenous art
by Jarrett Martineau, University of Victoria, and Eric Ritskes, University of Toronto.
https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/21320