Arlyssa D. Becenti
Kathleen Tom-Garcia began by sewing face masks for people during the pandemic. Then one day, she learned that the Phoenix Indian Center was offering an online ribbon skirt making class taught by none other than Agnes Woodward, who made the ribbon skirt Deb Haaland wore when she was sworn in as Secretary of Interior.
After learning how to make a skirt, Tom-Garcia made a red one in honor of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement. From that day forward, she said she hasn’t stopped making skirts and every time she posts a picture of a new one on Facebook, someone buys it in a matter of minutes.
“After that, I started blooming and creating and all these designs came into my head,” said Tom-Garcia. “It just flowed. It was like a gift. When I buy the fabric, there’s an energy that is drawn to that fabric. I just touch it and everything flows in place. I guess it’s a gift from the creator.”
On a chilly Saturday night in early March, Tom-Garcia’s granddaughter modeled her grandma’s latest creation in front of a sold-out crowd for the Phoenix Indian Center’s Indigenous Community Fashion Showcase, held this year at Brophy College Preparatory School in commemoration of the center’s 75th anniversary.
It wasn’t only community members, like Tom-Garcia, showing off their creations, but also four notable Indigenous fashion designers, whose pieces were worn and modeled by Indignenous models.
“We are celebrating our 75th anniversary,” said Jolyana Begay-Kroupa, interim director of the Phoenix Indian Center. “It’s going to be a really great year to celebrate events that are community based and bring recognition to all the urban people and the services we’ve been providing for a number of years.”
Begay-Kroupa said the Phoenix Indian Center went into overdrive for the urban Indigenous population during the pandemic, providing an array of services, like the ribbon skirt making classes via Zoom for those isolated or quarantined.
“We never closed our doors but we did stop face-to-face interaction,” said Begay-Kroupa. “However, we continued to be there for our community and for our families as best we could. We explored and used our creativity, pivoted on services so that we continued to help.”
Designs inspired by Indigenous culture
The idea behind the fashion show was to emphasize bringing the community together, which is why the first part was dedicated to community members like Tom-Garcia, folks who don’t necessarily have a clothing or jewelry line but who want to show off their creations.
The second part was for up-and-coming fashion designers who are a part of the fashion industry, Begay-Kroupa said. Four designers were invited to participate in the show.
The fashion show took place on the same weekend as the 64th Annual Heard Museum Guild and Market. Designer Sage Mountainflower, Ohkay Owingeh/Taos Pueblo/Navajo, had a successful showcase at the Heard after one of her pieces from her Phendi’-Tewa collection won the blue ribbon. The piece was also bought by the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts. She said the dress was a contemporary look to her tribe’s manta style dresses.
The black-on-black piece was inspired by her Pueblo culture. The design used black cut glass beads to create beaded florals on satin, with vintage iridescent gold bugle beads to highlight the water flow and kiva steps. The piece took about 40 hours to make and a lot of love and creativity went into it, Mountainflower said. When it was purchased she teared up.
“I cried because of all the work I put into it,” Mountainflower said. “I do get emotional on my pieces. A lot of them are usually customized.”
Her winning dress was only one of a half-dozen pieces showcased that night. All were black, and gave a contemporary twist to Indigenous fashion, whether it was from the designer’s tribe or something common among all tribes.
The word “phendi” in Phendi-Tewa, the name used by Mountainflower for her collection, means black in the Tewa language of the six northern Pueblos, she said.
“I’m still the tribal environmental director and that’s what I still love to do,” she said. “That’s why a lot of my stuff will relate to the earth because it’s my environmental science degree and my connection to this land.”
Mountainflower said Native fashion is unique because it has a story behind the creations of who we as people are and where we come from.
Another piece that Mountainflower made won judges’ choice at the Heard. The full-beaded bodice dress is called “flowers in the stars,” and was started when COVID-19 shut down Pueblo villages. She was under quarantine at the time and that moment was represented in the dress with the use of pink on the bodice.
“We all have that emergence story of how we came to this earth and that’s how all my creations are,” said Mountainflower about the significance of Indigenous fashion. “They all have an emergence story, too.”
Other designers who were featured in the fashion show were: Wilfred Jumbo (Diné), Joanne Miles-Long (San Carlos Apache and Akimel O’Odham), and Rebekah Jarvey (Chippewa Cree and Blackfeet).
Models help give designs life
The young Indigenous models who got to bring alive these works of art were also in awe of the pieces chosen for them to wear. Lerae Begay wore Jumbo’s piece and Shicura Brown wore Jarvey’s piece.
“Native modeling represents more of a culture,” said Brown. “Becoming a model isn’t about just beauty, it’s about being a role model as well.”
The Phoenix Indian Center is the oldest American Indian non-profit organization of its kind in the United States. It serves more than 7,000 people annually through direct services and reaches more than 20,000 people through other related outreach. It has assisted more than 1 million people during its existence.
The center is the largest of its kind in the country, serving the third-largest and fastest-growing urban American Indian population, about 150,000 people in metro Phoenix. It provides services in the areas of workforce development, language and cultural enrichment, youth programs, substance abuse and suicide prevention.
The proceeds from the fashion show ticket sales will go back to the Phoenix Indian Center, said Begay-Kroupa.
“The Indigenous Community Fashion Show was a complete success,” said Kris Beech, who was the fashion show master of ceremony. “The reaction from the community was so overwhelming I expect it to become a yearly event. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see an “Indigenous Fashion Week” at some point in the future that attracts people from across the world.”
Arlyssa Becenti covers Indigenous affairs for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send ideas and tips to arlyssa.becenti@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter @Abecenti.
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