What makes a successful career? That was the question posed at the panel “Native American Voices: Crafting a Successful Career in Fashion, Art, and Design,” on Monday, Nov. 10, which concluded FIT’s celebration of National Native American Heritage Month.
For Amy Denet Deal, a Diné (Navajo) Fashion Design alumna with 40 years in the industry, a meaningful career meant reinventing herself after working for major international brands. “It was going from very large productions to things I create with my own hands, and focusing on reusing things that are already here on the planet,” she said. Success also meant giving back to her community by helping build skate parks in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
For students just starting out, satisfaction can mean working on real-world problems, said Joshua Whitehead, assistant professor in the Communication Design Pathways program and a member of the Choctaw Nation. His class is collaborating with New York Law School to design systems that help immigrant families navigate courts, he said. “In the work that students produce here at FIT there is a real concern for how design can go out into the world and support systems that are sustainable and make the world a better place.”
Meaning also comes from connections, according to The Son of Picasso, a self-taught artist and fashion designer of the Kiowa tribe. “Native artists will look out for other Native artists and teach along the way,” he said, “and as I was growing up, I would seek out mentors”—which is how he met Denet Deal. In his approach to design, he doesn’t separate clothing by gender, and rather than choosing garments for the models in his runway shows, he asks them to pick their own. “I want you to feel confident in what you wear, and I want your personality to shine, and what you’re wearing then translates better,” he said. “Giving that blank canvas to people is one thing I like to do with my brand.” —Irina Ivanova