Native/American Fashion: Inspiration, Appropriation, and Cultural Identity

This symposium brings experts to discuss issues around Native fashion including, its history, cultural appropriation and examples of creative collaborations.

Native/American Fashion: Inspiration, Appropriation, and Cultural Identity will explore  fashion as a creative endeavor and an expression of cultural identity; the history of Native fashion; issues of problematic cultural appropriation in the field; and examples of creative collaborations and best practices between Native designers and fashion brands. The program features distinguished academic and legal scholars, and fashion designers and editors, including FIT faculty members Anna Blume and Daniel James Cole, along with Joe Horse Capture, Adrienne Keene, Karen Kramer, Jessica Metcalfe, Lynette Nylander, Virgil Ortiz, Sherry Farrell Racette, Susan Scafidi, and Timothy Shannon. Moderated by Kathleen Ash-Milby, and FIT faculty members Eileen Karp and Amy Werbel.

The symposium is held as a part of the exhibition Native Fashion Now currently on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York (NMAI), and is sponsored by the NMAI and FIT.

This event is free and open to the public. It will be held at NMAI–New York at 1 Bowling Green, in lower Manhattan.