Indigenous Students Fashion Show
video by Olivia Thompson
This year, the Indigenous Students at Syracuse (ISAS) organized a runway fashion show for Native American Heritage Month. The decision to host the show was primarily made by Indigenous students’ desire to bring attention to Indigenous values and culture as well as their contributions through clothing and art.
This was the first Native American fashion show SU has had in over a decade. It was designed to highlight the importance of the culture, educate the campus on the many contributions of Indigenous people, and raise awareness of the Indigenous nations on Syracuse University’s campus.
The fashion itself was also absolutely stunning and indicative of where the Native American community has been and where it is going. For the first segment of the night, models wore loose-fitting pants with high necklines and long-sleeve A-line dresses that hit slightly below the knee. The dresses and pants were monochrome and done in matching patterns.
The next models wore black crop tops with ribbon skirts of various colors and designs. Finally, for the grand finale, models wore bell-bottom jeans, black leggings, brown jeans with denim jackets and vests, cropped sweaters, and various oversized, patterned jackets.
Throughout the show, models wore exquisite jewelry, including cuff bracelets with genuine sterling silver and multicolored stones, needlepoint, beaded, and squash- blossom necklaces, post dangle, hook dangle, and post stud earrings, and ray jack rings.
When posing, the models stopped on a painting of a turtle on the floor at the end of the runway. The turtle represented the Tuscarora Turtle Clan of Western New York—the nation that A’ngelee Clause, the creative director for the Indigenous Students at Syracuse, is from.
The models themselves were from various nations, including the Onondaga, Seneca, Cattaraugus, Akwesasne Mohawk, Allegany, and Tuscarora Nations. The show ended with Clause thanking the audience for coming as well as Maris Jacobs, co-president of ISAS, and Logan Booth, a student from the Seneca Nation that modeled on the runway, for helping her execute the show. “I want to thank you all for coming for something that really came true to me over the past year,” said Clause. “I couldn’t have done this by myself.”