photo by: Contributed Photo

Haskell students wear outfits designed by Indigenous designers in the 2024 "Indigenous Couture Goes Vogue" fashion show at Haskell Indian Nations University on April 20, 2024. Indigenous Couture Goes Vogue Vol. 2 will be held at Haskell on Saturday, May 3, 2025.

At the Haskell Indian Nations University fashion show on Saturday, you won’t see stereotypical Native designs, but you will see one thing that’s always in style at Haskell: resilience.

The student-organized show is called “Indigenous Couture Goes Vogue Vol. 2,” and it’s meant to be a “declaration of resilience,” lead organizer Esmarie Cariaga-Whiteman said. That goes for both the designers, who want to express their modern experiences and challenge people’s preconceived notions of Indigenous fashion and art, and for a school that’s been through a painful few months because of the Trump administration’s layoffs and cuts.

“It’s not just a fashion show,” Cariaga-Whiteman said. “It’s proof that even when systems try to cut us down, we rise. Our creativity, our pride and our voices are still here, and we’re going to celebrate that loudly.”

Cariaga-Whiteman, a member of the Santee-Sioux Nation, first organized a fashion show last year as a project for an internship. After that first successful year, she and the newly established Haskell Runway Club made big plans for this year’s show. When the cuts rocked the university community in February, there was a real possibility that the show wouldn’t come together as planned, but now it has a lineup of both student designers and established fashion labels, and it even has an award-winning Indigenous hip-hop star as a host.

It took a lot of support from the Haskell community to get to this point, Cariaga-Whiteman said, and the organizers intend to give something back. While Saturday’s show is free for Haskell students, the money raised from other attendees’ tickets and donations will benefit the Haskell Foundation as it works to support the students and employees still struggling after the cuts.

Tickets are $10 for general admission and can be purchased at the door or in advance at the Haskell Foundation’s website. Doors open at 3 p.m. Saturday at Coffin Sports Complex, 155 Indian Ave., and the show starts at 4:20 p.m. and is expected to run until 8 p.m.

It’s one of two events on Saturday that will be raising money for the foundation — the other is the Haskell Benefit Art Auction, which starts at 5:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton, 200 McDonald Drive, and features both a live auction and a silent auction.

Here’s more about how Cariaga-Whiteman started her fashion show last year, and how this year’s event came together.

photo by: Contributed

Esmarie Cariaga-Whiteman (right), a Haskell student and organizer of the Indigenous Couture Goes Vogue fashion show at Haskell Indian Nations University, posing with Patricia Michaels, a prominent Indigenous fashion designer who was a part of last year’s show at Haskell.

A runway club and a star emcee

Even in that first year, Cariaga-Whiteman had bigger goals than just doing a project for an internship. She thought a show like this was something that the Haskell community really needed — something that could bring people together.

For a few years, she’d thought that Haskell didn’t have a very strong campus culture, something she attributed in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. The student body needed a fun and empowering new way to show off their talents, she thought.

“I wanted to promote confidence and self-esteem within the Haskell student body,” Cariaga-Whiteman said.

The fact that she’d never organized anything as complicated as a fashion show didn’t stop her. And she had someone with real-life experience to help her out. One of her best friends was related to Patricia Michaels, a fashion designer who was once a contestant on the reality TV competition “Project Runway.”

Michaels was very helpful in making that first show a success, Cariaga-Whiteman said. She said she “needed that big name to bring attention” to the project.

After the 2024 show, Cariaga-Whiteman knew she wanted to do something even bigger in 2025. But for that, she would need a team of organizers — and even more star power.

The team was the new Haskell Runway Club. It’s a group of students that works behind the scenes to promote the event and produce the show, and Cariaga-Whiteman said it’s led to a lot of strong friendships on campus and brought people together.

For the headliner, Cariaga-Whiteman had someone in mind: Stella Standingbear.

Standingbear is a Lakota musician and two-time winner of the Indigenous Hip-Hop Award, and the fashion show organizers were in contact with her team and were eager to bring her to campus to perform and host the event.

But then came the federal cuts.

Cariaga-Whiteman said that after the Trump administration’s layoffs in February, in which dozens of faculty and staff members lost their jobs, there was a real danger that the show would not have the funding to go ahead as envisioned. Having Standingbear come and perform now “felt out of reach,” which Cariaga-Whiteman said was disappointing considering that she’s well-known in the Indigenous community.

But the students and their supporters remained determined. They reached out to tribal nations and local organizations, and Cariaga-Whiteman said the club was able to find enough financial support to make it happen. She appreciated that Standingbear’s team stayed patient with them as they worked to come up with the money.

Of course Cariaga-Whiteman is thrilled to have Standingbear as a host, but she’s just as thrilled with the message the supporters have sent. She said the support they received gave the organizers “the emotional strength we needed to push forward.”

photo by: Contributed

Haskell students working backstage during last year’s “Indigenous Couture Goes Vogue” fashion show. Esmarie Cariaga-Whiteman, the lead organizer and Haskell student, said the second show, which will take place Saturday afternoon, has provided a lot of opportunities for students interested in the fashion industry.

‘We’re tired of being put in a box’

The show will feature designs by Haskell students, including Cariaga-Whiteman herself and Alyssa Wilson, whose label is called 20 Froggies Designz. But you can also expect to see some established Indigenous designers, such as Haskell alumna Claudia Tyner Little Axe, of the label A TiPi Maker’s Daughter, whose designs have been featured in Vogue.

Although the designers belong to many different tribes and have different histories and aesthetics, Cariaga-Whiteman said all of them want to challenge the idea many outsiders have of what Indigenous fashion should be. The designs will break stereotypes, Cariaga-Whiteman said, and “elevate” what it means to be an Indigenous designer.

“We’re tired of being put in a box, that if you’re an Indigenous designer you have to only do (traditional) Indigenous designs,” Cariaga-Whiteman said. “Our collections reflect experience as Indigenous people within the 21st century.”

It’s not just about showing what Indigenous fashion can be — it’s about opening Indigenous people’s eyes to their own possibilities, too.

Cariaga-Whiteman told a story about a student who took part in last year’s fashion show, Mary Bighorn. In 2024, Cariaga-Whiteman really wanted Bighorn, a Haskell volleyball player, to be in the show, and she practically begged Bighorn to participate as a model.

At first, Bighorn was reluctant. But she went ahead with it, and since then, Cariaga-Whiteman said Bighorn has continued modeling, walking in other runway events.

That’s what Cariaga-Whiteman really wanted from what started as her project.

“It wasn’t just for me,” Cariaga-Whiteman said. “I wanted to help uplift and promote Indigenous models, designers and creatives, especially with Haskell students.”

Cariaga-Whiteman herself hasn’t yet decided whether she wants to pursue a career in fashion after she graduates this spring. She’s considered it, but she has also thought about going to law school, joking that she’s a real-life version of Elle Woods, Reese Witherspoon’s character in the movie “Legally Blonde.” Right now, as she gets ready to put on this second fashion show, she’s mostly thinking of the lasting legacy of creating this event and the Haskell Runway Club that’s created new friendships and new opportunities for people on campus.

“I really wanted to leave an imprint here,” Cariaga-Whiteman said. “I’m grateful the school gave us a platform to basically live out our dreams.”