![Orlando Dugi (Diné [Navajo]) Cape, dress, and headdress from “Desert Heat” Collection, 2012 Paint, silk, organza, feathers, beads, and 24k gold; feathers; porcupine quills and feathers Courtesy of the designer, Santa Fe. Hair and Makeup: Dina DeVore. Model: Julia Foster. Photo by Unék Francis.](http://adht.parsons.edu/fashionstudies/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/native-fashion-now.jpg)
CAPE, DRESS, AND HEADDRESS BY ORLANDO DUGI FROM ‘DESERT HEAT’ COLLECTION / PHOTO BY UNÉK FRANCIS, COURTESY OF PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM.
The exhibition is the first of its kind in the US and is an important reassessment of the vast and varied contribution of Native Designers to American fashion from the 1950s to the present.
As the exhibition curator Karen Kramer, PEM’s Curator of Native American Art and Culture, explains: “Native American art and culture are often perceived as phenomena of the past—or just mere replicas, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Contemporary Native fashion designers are dismantling and upending familiar motifs, adopting new forms of expression and materials, and sharing their vision of Native culture and design with a global audience.”
The exhibition is currently on view at the Portland Art Museum through September 4, 2016. The exhibition then travels throughout 2016 and 2017 to the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.
