The Aesthetic Effect of Identity on Native Couture of the Americas

Abstract

An artistic genre or school is typically denoted by a commonality in theme, process, or outcome. While the native peoples of the North American continent have produced clothing and garments for centuries, contemporary Native designers are increasingly moving to the forefront of modern fashion, producing a particular oeuvre of couture that is consistently recognizable in contrast to other designers. Native North American fashion is as diverse as the more than 600 tribes living on the continent. However, Metcalfe (2013) suggests that Native fashion is defined by three variables of expression of cultural art, historical connotations, and contemporary form of ancient traditions, all encompassing the identity of the designer as a Native. This paper will systematically evaluate the couture of 29 contemporary Native fashion designers from North America including the United States and Canada to test whether identity does have an aesthetic effect on the fashion produced by Native designers. Further, this paper identifies that two additional mechanisms, that of activism and storytelling, are key in what it means to be a designer producing Native couture.