Fashion and music have long shared a stage. At this year’s Indigenous Fashion Show in Niagara Falls, that connection will be especially direct: Snotty Nose Rez Kids are scheduled to perform while Native designers put their work in front of a national audience.
The fourth annual show is set for Saturday, November 21, at 7 p.m. inside the Seneca Niagara Event Center in western New York. Organizers say the program will feature 16 Indigenous designers and dozens of Indigenous models. A shopping event featuring designer pieces and Native vendors will follow the runway presentation.
A different sort of fashion soundtrack
For listeners who know Snotty Nose Rez Kids through their sharp, funny and politically aware rap, the booking makes sense. The duo from Kitamaat Village in British Columbia have built an audience without leaving their community’s experiences behind. Their album Red Future won the JUNO Award for Rap Album of the Year, a breakthrough distinction for Indigenous performers.
The event’s organizers confirmed the performance in a September announcement. Their vision is not to use Native culture as decorative material, but to give designers and musicians a high-visibility platform on their own terms.
That platform will also include designers with distinct tribal affiliations, styles and artistic priorities. Karlene Familo of the Seneca Nation, Kehala Smith of the Tuscarora Nation and Rebekah Jarvey of the Chippewa Cree Tribe were among the designers named in connection with Indigenous New York Fashion Week. KHEW has previously reported on Jarvey’s fashion work and its significance for people at Rocky Boy.
Why this matters beyond the runway
It is easy to see fashion and hip-hop as two separate stories. They are both industries in which gatekeepers traditionally decided who could be visible, whose work was considered commercially viable, and what Indigenous art was supposed to look or sound like. Events led by Indigenous organizers help artists answer those questions for themselves.
The show also offers a useful corrective to the idea that Native creativity belongs mostly to the past. These are working designers presenting collections now, and working musicians whose audiences know every word of their songs. Their work is contemporary, entrepreneurial and unmistakably connected to community.
Tickets are listed by organizers from $45, with attendance limited to ages 16 and older. Anyone considering travel should confirm current availability and event details with the venue before making plans.
