I’m not a stranger to working with new networks. I am entering a new phase and feel that this is the evolution of what is to come next. I have gone from humbly offering the public my skills to hoisting my ideas and notions of style and fashion on everybody. I am doing more couture stuff and hope to continue elevating the levels of design in the Native Market while (finally!) getting for myself what others have been using me to get for themselves.
I am going to promote Nizhoni Way Apparel with great fervor. I want to get back to the money making aspect of why I started this. I spent so much time the past couple of years worrying about promoting shows for other people or fending off the pariahs of the Native American Market that I’ve lost the attention to design I have always had in the past.
I am looking out for myself and those who have vested interests in Nizhoni Way Apparel. People have been asking “if these people are creating a ‘fashion’ name for themselves and growing and making money-AND, have no fashion experience why can’t you do the same?” I thought, “why not!” I did attend Fashion Design School and I did work in the actual fashion industry and have far more knowledge of the Fashion Industry than most out there.
I am continuing with NuGen Productions and I do hope to represent fashion talent and eventually nurture the future of the Native Market. Get people use to the notion that high fashion shows are done to make money for designers and not a means to promote a calendar, new t-shirt lines, or modeling agencies.
The Nizhoni Way Ingénue “program,” I’m not sure if I will continue with that. Its basically something that I started back in 2006 to mentor young fashion designers who were interested in entering the fashion field but weren’t quite sure how to go about it or what it entailed. I have worked and featured two young designers who are currently making themselves known in the Native American Market. I do feel that to change the market to a viable commodity, I do have to take an active role. The Ingénue program was my way of doing that. Giving young individuals the opportunity to see exactly what the whole process requires. If a am going to continue the program, I will be making drastic changes in how I deal with the new young designers and a selection process would go into effect.
