Indigenous fashion artists and models across North America made their way to Santa Fe, N.M. to participate in the inaugural Native Fashion week hosted by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA), the event took place Thursday, May 2 to Sunday, May 5 at the Santa Fe Convention Center. Like larger fashion week events e.g. New York Fashion Week, this event featured multiple runway shows, symposium sessions, and industry parties highlighting Native designers and upcoming models.  

This year’s SWAIA Native Fashion Week was the first of its kind, the show had humble beginnings taking place during the annual Santa Fe Indian Market outdoors, under the direction of Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, who is the fashion curator for SWAIA, the inaugural event proved to be very successful.  

In an interview with the American Art Collective: Ep. 260 podcast earlier this year, Bear Robe shared the history of the SWAIA Fashion Show and how the event blossomed into a dedicated fashion week. “Yes, the very first Native Fashion Week for Santa Fe. The very first Native Fashion Week in America on this large of a platform, and I’ve been working towards this for 10 years,” she said. “This is not something I’ve just pulled out of my hat and presented to people. This has been a lot of work and great work, collaborations and partnerships that have gotten SWAIA Fashion to this point of the Fashion Week.” 

 “The first runway, the first indoor runway was 80 feet long, I believe. Maybe it was 60. Then it grew to 80, and then it’s now at 100 feet long.” Bear Robe said. “So it just kept growing and everything kept getting bigger, the audience just had more demand. The very first fashion shows, I was begging models to like, please, please, I was like scouting models. I was calling other designers and I was doing everything I could to source models to walk these shows, but I am in such a great place now because I have models who are contacting me from across Canada, the United States, contacts who want to walk for the SWAIA Fashion Week.”  

Local artist and musician Bird Red attended SWAIA Native Fashion week as a model for artist Loren Aragon and his brand “Towering Stone.” Red is a first descendant of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and has been modeling professionally for 10 months with his first modeling opportunity being the Native Love Indigenous Fashion show which took place last year in August. In a recent interview with the Southern Ute Drum, Red shared how he got his start in modeling locally and his experience during the SWAIA Fashion Week event. 

“Originally, I was the emcee for the Native Love Indigenous Fashion show but out of nowhere a designer got in contact with my mom, so I started working with this designer named Kathleen Tom-Garcia.” Red said. “Her brand is called KAThleen’s Design, she ended up wanting my cousin and my sister Aislinn to also model and that is when we all modeled for our first time–from there I was invited to another show which eventually led me to SWAIA.”  

“The day of the show is very busy, even though my show started at three o’clock, I had to be there at the Santa Fe Convention Center at seven thirty in the morning–after checking in you go into the dressing room,” Red said. “The dressing room is huge, there is also a makeup room and a hair room, there you start to get ready–by noon we had our official show rehearsal. I was really nervous the closer and closer we got to showtime matter of fact I don’t even remember the walk–I just had to focus and remember my stops and poses.”  

“This experience was something I will never forget, and it was super impactful in my life,” Red said. “The best part of this experience was that I traveled there on my own so far away for a dream that I am chasing.”  

Bird Red encourages Indigenous people who are interested in modeling to reach out for advice and to keep chasing their dreams. “100% reach out to me for any type of advice, I’m also still new to this but I can give you as many tools as I have,” Red said. “Start your own portfolio, a modeling page on Instagram or anywhere–there are so many ways to promote yourself.”  

Bird Red is looking forward to modeling during the Indigifest Fashion Show on Saturday, July 20 in Sheep Springs, N.M., he also hopes to be selected for the Santa Fe Indian Market Native Fashion Show which will be held August 15-18 in Santa Fe, N.M.  

 “There are so many opportunities out there now for us Native people,” he said. “Always remember where you come from and always be yourself even though it’s really hard to do that–remember your traditions, that’s the number one.”