MISSION — Native American fashion again took to the catwalk at Wildhorse Resort & Casino during the Northwest Native Economic Summit.

The show was Wednesday night, Oct. 4, but five fashion show veterans the day before discussed fashion shows as an economic development tool during a fireside chat at the summit.

Roxanne Best, Colville, moderated the conversation among Dani Wilgus, of the National Congress of American Indians, who offered retail experience from her time at the Hamley Western Store in downtown Pendleton; fashion designer Lydia Skahan, Umatilla and Nez Perce; Jacob Wallis, Umatilla and with Nixyaawii Community Financial Services, and a producer of Native American fashion shows since his youth; and Casey Pearlman, Inupiaq descendant and the business development specialist for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Economic Development Corp.

The group described the various springboards they used to enter the art and showmanship of the Native American fashion show, and family was very much a player.

“I think the spark for me personally sends back to my great aunties and my grandma and my cousins,” Wallis told the audience. “We’re all creators. Native communities have creators everywhere you look.”

Wallis started in his youth producing variety shows with a considerable fashion element at a local church community hall. The costumes and regalia were constructed by female members of his extended family.

“I have VHS videotapes of us putting on these awesome variety shows, and we made all of the outfits,” Wallis said. “We still have those and a lot of great aunts and my cousins were amazing seamstresses and it’s like it was amazing to see, but for them not to have had that platform felt wrong. I always envisioned there being a platform in a conference building to operate for my native community, but also others.”

Pearlman said designers in this area have a “kind of a signature style” that makes a niche market for people who are friends and relatives.

“It’s to create a stage,” she said. “I’m not a designer. Jacob was really good at getting his aunties and cousins to get out there. We can talk about the economic impacts on personal empowerment that’s happening through this, and it’s really special.”

Skahan said his she grew up with her grandparents around the table creating art, and her grandmother, Jenny Williams, is a master basket weaver. Skahan traveled with her across the Northwest attending her various workshops.

“She was a really great inspiration to me in learning the Native art forms,” she said, “and I got my start weaving really small yarn bags. As I started to travel with her more, we went to quill work and beading and selling.”

Skahan said the day came when her grandmother told her she needed to learn to make your own items

“So I started making different dresses,” Skahan said. “There’s a lot of people that come to me, especially during hard times like funerals. I make a lot of big batch orders of ribbon shirts or Goodman skirts, so that’s where I got started in my journey as an entrepreneur, through art from a very young age.”