Indigenous Fashion Honors Culture As It Rises In Popularity

Indigenous designers reclaim fashion, honoring culture, creativity, and history while celebrating heritage and resilience.

Earlier this week, on Monday, October 13, 2025, many cities and states celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day—a day to celebrate and honor Native American culture, reclaim history, and acknowledge the ongoing issues that Indigenous people still face.

What started as a day of recognition has evolved into a cultural renaissance, a space where traditions, creativity, and storytelling come together through art, fashion, and community.

Since former President Joe Biden’s declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day alongside Columbus Day, Indigenous fashion and designers have been reclaiming their narratives and redefining representation in the fashion industry.

Seeing is believing, and through fashion, Indigenous communities prove their existence, challenge and reclaim narratives, and redefine themselves.

Among the many ways Indigenous people celebrate their heritage, whether through cultural events, performances, powwows, advocacy, and protests, fashion stands at the forefront as a prominent form of expression, displaying identity and resilience.

Native American designers have long influenced the fashion world, from cultural beadwork and textile weavings to intricate patterns, often uncredited for their contributions or traditional techniques.

Yet, this fall season, Indigenous fashion stood out. Often overlooked by mainstream designers, Indigenous designs not only made headlines but also highlighted some talented Indigenous fashion designers.

Okuma was the first Native American designer to participate in New York Fashion Week fall of 2025, where she debuted a collection of ready-to-wear pieces featuring her original prints with imagery of dentalium shells, flowers, elk teeth, and butterflies.

In the Indigenous fashion world, dentalium shells are just as precious as diamonds, used as decorative ornaments for clothing or jewelry, as seen in Okuma’s designs, along with designers like Tania Larsson, who designs Gwich’in jewelry from land-based materials, and Keri Ataumbi, who combines culturally significant and precious materials from the non Native world and Native community.

Valued for their unique beauty, these shells also display one’s wealth; the more shells you have, the more respect and nobility you are considered in the community.

Rooted in centuries of tradition, Indigenous fashion honors ancestral knowledge and expresses community identity through contemporary artistry.

As we continue to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, it is important to honor, appreciate, celebrate, and truly recognize the culture, creativity, and traditions that continue to shape and inspire America both on and beyond the runway.