Designer and artist Jamie Okuma considers herself as more than just a Native American designer. Okuma is a woman who identifies as Shoshone-Bannock, Wailaki and Okinawan and who is influenced by all of her cultural identities, which makes her conscious of the world around her.
Through fashion and art, the CFDA member expresses herself authentically, leading her to recently be appointed to the Indian Arts and Crafts Board under the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Indigenous Art. “I have always created and dressed however I wanted. If there were ever attempted restrictions I did not care to notice,” Okuma stated.
It is all of Okuma’s cultural experiences that influenced her greatest work in art and fashion. As she put it, “I am a part of multiple tribes. And it is not with that intent to honor a specific tribe. It is who I am and I know my culture’s aesthetics, it is what I know best.”
There may be artists who see Okuma’s work as a light of resilience and representation too, as they are not familiar with stories of designers who look like them. But most importantly, Okuma believes that one person cannot represent one group of people.
“How can one person be a representative of such a large and diverse group,” she explained. ”You cannot. But I hope to be a great representative of myself and my family as best as I possibly can.”
Okuma’s background in art – one she says is long and full of as many failures as well as wins – captures the beauty of untold stories and empowers people to be vocal, even as she expresses unpopular opinions that are fresh perspectives for the fashion industry.
“I am not keen on the term ’empower’ because you would have to be powerless to insinuate someone needs empowerment.
“No one is powerless,” she continued. “If you feel that in this business you are in the wrong field. You have to have nerves of steel, it is incredibly tough.”
Her conceptual aims for wearable art consist of ideas derived from her culture. “Our native work has been seen on runways since forever…or I should say, a non-natives interpretation of our work,” she said. “So there is a market and love for it, and why? Because however you look at it, it is incredibly beautiful, especially when it is done right by the people who have lived the experiences. The work is in our DNA, it cannot be paralleled.”
Okuma’s wearable art has given her foot into the art world as she is published in Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Heard Museum in Phoenix, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and The Denver Art Museum. She is well on the way to being an impressionable mark on the world, bringing light that expands perspectives in fashion and art .
