laporcupina:

[Frankie] Welch is one of nearly 70 designers featured in “Native Fashion Now,” running through Sept. 4 at the National Museum of the American Indian in the Financial District. Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., the exhibit is the first large-scale traveling exhibition devoted to contemporary Native design.

“We wanted to shake up the preconceived notions of Native American art and creative expression,” says curator Karen Kramer, who conceived the show. “It’s not buckskin and beads and feather headdresses.”

“Native Fashion Now” demonstrates that astonishing breadth, from Lloyd “Kiva” New’s 1960s shirt-dresses straight out of “I Love Lucy” to Douglas Miles’ political skater-tees and skateboards to Wendy Ponca’s avant-garde space-age couture gowns made from silver Mylar, eagle feathers, crystals and space-shuttle glass.

Native American fashion like you’ve never seen before