Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 28

28 NATIVE AMERICAN ARTS Indian Market Fashion, here and now Contest draws contemporary takes on traditional clothing By Amanda Schoenberg Journal Staff Writer Persephone Bebo-Maybee may have slept through her first pass on stage and was a little wobbly during the rest of the competition but she still took home female Best of Show at last year's Native American Clothing Contest, held on the Sunday of the Santa Fe Indian Market. The 12-month-old wore a warrior headdress fit for a baby, along with a wool dress, bone breast plate, tackwork belt, beaded leggings and moccasins and deer hoof bag, all designed by her father, Dallin Maybee. "She is the perfect model," says her father. Featuring designers from all over the country, the annual Native American Clothing Contest is a crowd favorite. For more than 20 years, the contest has been the most COURTESY OF SWAIA KITTY LEAKEN Judge Tom Ford with Naomi Bebo-Maybee and her daughter, Persephone Bebo-Maybee, who won Best of Show at the 2011 Indian Market Native Clothing Contest in Santa Fe for an outfit created by her father, Dallin Maybee.

won Best of Show in the clothing contest's men's division in 2010. Sampling of traditions This year, designers will compete in 17 traditional and two contemporary categories at the clothing contest. Winners can earn the Best of Show title for traditional male, female and contemporary designs. Gomeo Bobelu, a volunteer for the past eight years with the clothing contest, says the event appealed to him because it offers a sample of so many Native traditions from across the country and, beginning last year, from Canada. For him, it is an opportunity to learn about how people use clothing to identify culture, he says.

Jeri Ah-be-hill, who spent 17 years as chairperson of the contest and is helping as an adviser this year, says it is fascinating to see everything from traditional Pueblo and Navajo clothing to outfits worn by Plains Indians at the contest. "It's really the most educational program," says Ah-be-hill, who is Kiowa and Comanche. The contemporary category, in particular, has taken on a life of its own at the contest, say Bobelu and Ah-be-hill. When Ah-be-hill started at the clothing contest, there were one or two contemporary designers. Now, about 20 designers compete in the contemporary category and the quality is "just amazing," she says.

The clothing contest, judged last year by an expert panel including celebrity designer Tom Ford, also brings style watchers from far afield, including the likes of Harper's Bazaar and the New York Times, Bobelu says. Watching the crowd react as a model wearing his designs walks across the stage at the contest is exciting and nerve-wracking, says designer Orlando Dugi of Santa Fe. "When you hear people gasp, you have this stirring feeling inside," he says. Dugi, originally from Gray Mountain, is a self-taught designer who has made a name for himself at the contest with a first-place win for his beaded contemporary gown in 2010 and second place for a red silk gown with bead embroidery work last year. Orlando Dugi prepares model Wakeah Jhane for the Native American Clothing Contest last year.

photographed event during Indian Market, according to the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which produces the market. The Northern Plains-style outfit his daughter wore took him months to complete, says Maybee, a member of the Northern Arapaho and Seneca Tribes who lives in Arizona, COURTESY OF SWAIAJULIEN MCROBERTS If you go Native American Clothing Contest 9 a.m. -noon Aug. 19 Santa Fe Plaza Free where he is a prosecutor for the Gila River Indian Community. Persephone's look also featured a split buffalo horn baby bonnet, traditionally a symbol of accomplishment and status.

Adding horns to a baby bonnet expresses his hopes for his daughter's future, Maybee says. Maybee, also a dancer and choregrapher, has entered beadwork at Indian Market for about 10 years and racked up several wins, including Best of Show in 2007 for two children's books with beaded covers and illustrated ledger art on antique ledger paper. Maybee also.