An Inside Look at the Inaugural Indigenous New York Fashion Week

New York City has never seen anything like it before: a full-blown, fashionable celebration of Native creativity. Coinciding with the timing of the CFDA’s New York Fashion Week, the first-ever Indigenous New York Fashion Week (INYFW) took place from September 11 to 15 and featured 25 designers who traveled from all over North, Central, and South America. So too did Indigenous guests, models, hair and makeup artists, and production crew members—all there to experience this momentous occasion.

Although American fashion has long incorporated tribal iconography and traditional practices firmly rooted in Native American communities, Indigenous perspectives have been left out of the mainstream fashion world—until now.

“At its core, INYFW is about carving out space for Indigenous designers and models to take the global stage on their own terms, in a place like NYC that often ignores and suppresses Indigenous voices,” says Brooklyn-based fashion designer Korina Emmerich (Puyallup), who is also the cofounder of Relative Arts NYC, the Native-focused East Village shop that produced INYFW. “We are here to celebrate cultural resilience, Indigenous futurism, and artistic excellence, while challenging the fashion industry to rethink who gets to define style, innovation, and luxury.”

INYFW upended expectations and broke barriers with each fashion showcase. Collections featured everything from chic streetwear to opera-inspired couture, proving that Native fashion—like Native communities—is no monolith. Similarly, the models who hit the runway represented a variety of tribal nations, sizes, shapes, skin tones, and gender expressions—confirming the wide-ranging beauty of Indigeneity.

That authentic representation was evident to dozens of Native and non-Native eventgoers who packed the buzzing East Village event space, such as model/activist Quannah Chasinghorse (Hän Gwich’in and Sičangu/Oglala Lakota), publicist Kelly Cutrone, and film set designer Tafv Sampson (Muscogee).

“For more than a decade, I worked in the New York fashion and editorial world, and I seldom saw Indigenous peoples represented in any real way—let alone given a platform to showcase our own stories through design,” says Sampson, who has worked on films and TV shows like Reservation Dogs and Fancy Dance. “INYFW is more than a fashion show; it’s the bud of the bloom for all Indigenous creators, giving us an opportunity to speak more freely and to be understood in ways not heard before. It’s as overwhelming and exhilarating as it is long overdue.”

Also on full display was a devotion to traditional cultural practices, such as beading and weaving, and an embrace of contemporary creativity. Designer Justin Jacob Louis’s eponymous line of tailored trenches adorned with tribal motifs exemplified that delicate balance.

“My ethos has always been about blending the past with the present,” says the Vancouver-based designer, who is a member of the Samson Cree Nation. “I am constantly challenging myself to find ways to weave these elements of who I am and these pieces of the past into something modern, while still holding true to the reverence I hold for these values.” Louis’s collection also featured hints of streetwear influences from his Section 35 brand.

Even among the diversity of styles and cultures being expressed, INYFW was all about unity. Emmerich and her collaborators invited residents and guests of Lenapehoking—the ancestral homelands of the Lenape peoples, who were forcibly removed from what’s now the New York area—to reconsider the origins of this place. That sentiment was encapsulated with a preppy punk look during the Relative Arts NYC collection, centered around a cheeky yet clever “I Heart Lenapehoking” tee (with a portion of proceeds supporting the Munsee Delaware Lenape Language and History Group).

For Pacha Arts designer Kinoo Arcentales (Kichwa/Mestizo), that notion of inclusivity spans continents and country borders. “This collection, Kawsanki, is a proposal that’s meant to revive our connection as Northern and Southern Indigenous peoples and show that we aren’t that different from one another,” he explains. “For me, INYFW addresses a crucial issue: the lack of recognition of Southern Indigenous peoples and our deep ancestral roots. Colonialism has built a divide between us as people. Our participation in INYFW represents an important step in reshaping that narrative.”

An homage to nature was another thematic thread that ran through several fashion showcases, including the latest Ayimach Horizons collection from Toronto-based Red River Métis designer Jason Baerg. “Everything I created this year honors the air, the North, ancestral knowledges, and the color white,” he says. “Air transforms and carries everything—animating light, water, and story. The palette created transitions that embrace ombrés in silk chiffon. Fur evoked the North, while bear bells referenced our animal kin and the ceremonial continuum. Cool metallic shades contrasted the soft textures of natural fibers, while warm copper tones symbolized wind-fed fire, reflecting the overall power of the North.”

Other fashion houses brought powerful political statements to the runway, like a showstopping dress made of missing person posters by Michelle Luna (Diné) of brand Bitterwater For Redhouse. The crowd fell silent, and many attendees’ eyes welled up with tears as White Mountain Apache model De’Ara Dosela embodied the anguish and outrage felt by countless Indigenous communities about the ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis. It was a fitting finale to close out the runway shows aimed at uplifting Native voices.

Taken altogether, INYFW delivered on its intention in spades: to celebrate Indigenous excellence in its most fashionable forms. But this was about more than just style; it was about real representation. As Original Landlords streetwear designer Jeremy Arviso (Diné/Hopi/Gila River Pima/Tohono O’odham) explains, “We’re making a statement by banding together and creating the movement that we’ve all been waiting for. We can’t be ignored anymore.”