Eight Native designers brought fashion, heritage and fearless creative vision to Santa Fe Indian Market weekend
Santa Fe has long understood something the rest of the fashion world is still catching up to: art does not have to hang quietly on a wall.
It can walk.
It can dance.
It can feed you, surprise you, challenge you and arrive on a runway carrying generations of history into the future.
That spirit was everywhere during the 104th Santa Fe Indian Market, where the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) brought together Native art, fashion, food and performance for a weekend that demonstrated just how expansive Indigenous creativity can be.
At the center of the celebration were two major fashion moments featuring eight Native designers, beginning with the sold-out SWAIA Gala & Live Auction on Saturday, August 15, and continuing with the SWAIA Native Fashion Show on Sunday, August 16.
When Dinner Becomes a Cultural Experience
Saturday evening was never designed to be simply another gala.
Chef Pyet DeSpain (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), founder of Pyet’s Plate and winner of Gordon Ramsay’s Next Level Chef, curated the culinary experience, adding another layer of Indigenous storytelling to an evening already rich with art and design.
Then came the runway.
Award-winning designers Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) and Jamie Okuma (Luiseño, Wailaki, Okinawan and Shoshone-Bannock) presented new looks during the gala, turning the runway into a moving gallery of contemporary Native design.
For me, that is where events like this become particularly interesting.
Native fashion is not a museum piece frozen behind glass. These designers are working in the present tense, combining inherited knowledge, individual imagination and modern silhouettes while maintaining authorship over the stories being told.
That distinction matters.
The evening also featured Baby Opie (Cree/Anishinaabe), the powwow dancer, singer and drummer whose performances have attracted a massive social-media following, along with additional Native musical guests.
Art Worth Bidding On
The Gala & Live Auction also placed collecting directly in conversation with supporting Native artists.
Among the featured works were pieces by Isaiah Begay (Navajo), Rebecca Lucario (Acoma Pueblo) and Frederica Antonio (Acoma Pueblo).
One particularly intriguing offering was a beaded mini-Birkin created by Adrian Stevens (Ute/Shoshone Bannock/San Carlos Apache) and Sean Snyder (Navajo/Ute).
There was also a culinary package and experience with /shed project, led by chef and ceramicist Johnny Ortiz-Concha, while SWAIA’s silent auction expanded the opportunity to collect with more than 50 additional offerings.
That matters because the Gala is more than one glamorous evening. It is SWAIA’s premier fundraising event, helping the organization continue its year-round work supporting Native artists and creating economic and cultural opportunities.
Six Designers, One Runway and No Creative Ceiling
The fashion conversation continued Sunday when the SWAIA Native Fashion Show returned to the Santa Fe Community Convention Center Ballroom.
This time, six designers stepped into the spotlight:
Himikalas Pamela Baker (Squamish/Kwakiutl/Tlingit/Haida)
Jimmy Dean Horn (Chickasaw)
Jontay Kahm (Plains Cree)
Devon Tso (Diné)
Desmon Pack (Plains Cree)
Stephen Paul Judd (Kiowa/Choctaw)
Together, the designers represented an exciting spectrum of Indigenous fashion, from craftsmanship rooted in cultural tradition to silhouettes that push directly into contemporary and futuristic territory.
Recent coverage of the 2026 Indian Market described the weekend as one where traditional craftsmanship and innovation collided, and that may be the best way to understand what is happening on these runways.
This is heritage without creative handcuffs.
Native Fashion Is Writing Its Own Future
SWAIA has spent more than a century creating space for Native artists through Santa Fe Indian Market, which now brings together more than 1,000 Indigenous artists representing more than 200 Tribal Nations.
Fashion has become an increasingly powerful part of that story.
And perhaps the biggest takeaway from this year’s Gala and Native Fashion Show is that Indigenous designers do not need to be filtered through someone else’s interpretation to be relevant to the global fashion conversation.
They are already shaping it.
From Pyet DeSpain’s culinary storytelling to Patricia Michaels and Jamie Okuma commanding Saturday’s runway, and six additional designers taking over the ballroom Sunday, SWAIA created something much larger than a fashion presentation.
It created a cultural crossroads where food became storytelling, clothing became language and collecting became investment in the artists themselves.
Santa Fe may have rolled up the runway for another year.
The ideas that walked across it are going much farther.