10 Images: Creative Native Fashion Show Benefits Immersion Schools

Looking Great! Here are 10 Images of the Creative Native Fashion Show - A show that benefits Immersion Schools

Author:
Jack McNeel
Updated:
Sep 13, 2018
Original:
Oct 23, 2016

With fashions ranging from t-shirts and jeans to white formal gowns, traditional and modern fashion, female, male and youth models strutted their stuff on the runway at the Premiere Creative Native Fashion Show on October 15.

Designer Pam Amtrout fashions of Lil Rain Drop. Photo: Jackie McNeel

The modern fashions designed to highlight the artistry of northwest designers were “hipper” said Angelena Campobasso, owner of Creative Native Consulting and producer of the show. She believed her event to be the first-ever show of its type in the Spokane region.

Fashion by designer Angelene Campobasso of Creative Native. Photo: Jack McNeel

Designers and models from about 15 tribes gathered at the Spokane Convention Center for the show. There were also representatives from the Quinault, Wampanoag, Cree, Arapaho and Tlingit.

According to Campobasso, the show was organized to promote the fashions of regional native designers and benefit immersion schools of the Colville Confederated Tribes.

Fashion design by Otter Ironeyes & Sunni Bigday of HosStylez - Photo: Jack McNeel

In a reservation with 12 tribes or bands and three native languages where few members are still fluent in those languages, immersion schools have been established where students are ‘immersed’ in the language with teaching and communication in those languages to keep ancestral language and culture alive.

Fashion by designer Kalina Ebling. Photo: Jackie McNeel

Campobasso hopes to produce an annual fashion show each October, between the Pow Wow in the Park in Spokane and Indigenous Peoples Day, a time when Native American ancestry and culture is high in the minds of many regional people.