An Inside Look at the Inaugural Indigenous New York Fashion Week

New York City has never seen anything like it before: a full-blown, fashionable celebration of Native creativity. Coinciding with the timing of the CFDA’s New York Fashion Week, the first-ever Indigenous New York Fashion Week (INYFW) took place from September 11 to 15 and featured 25 designers who traveled from all over North, Central, and South America. So too did Indigenous guests, models, hair and makeup artists, and production crew members—all there to experience this momentous occasion.

Although American fashion has long incorporated tribal iconography and traditional practices firmly rooted in Native American communities, Indigenous perspectives have been left out of the mainstream fashion world—until now.

“At its core, INYFW is about carving out space for Indigenous designers an