Artist Spotlight: Jamie Okuma

Artist Spotlight is a fashion-focused segment that takes a deep dive into the unique backstories and their creative processes. Highlighting the fashion industry's hidden gems and innovative talents.

Jamie Okuma is a multi-platformed artist who designs accessories and ready-to-wear for her label Jamie Okuma. Okuma is Shoshone-Bannock and Luiseño, Wailaki, and Okinawan and is based on the La Jolla Indian Reservation in Pauma Valley, California. Okuma is a self-taught designer, who launched her fashion brand in 2015 when she was only 18. After graduating high-school she went on to study at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jamie Okuma started off in her career creating extravagant attire for powwows, which quickly turned into a successful career in creating wearable works of art. Okuma’s pieces are like works of art because not only are they are hand-crafted and on of a kind, they are hand-executed with the detailing process that is done to the highest degree many of which take up to six months to make. Okuma’s artwork is a way of reimagining Native American couture. Okuma’s pieces have been shown in art institutions such as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Texas Fashion Collection at the University of Texas. Her work has also been shown in countries such as France, Germany, Australia. Okuma is known for her “indigenized” take on luxury brands most notably her hand-beaded and quilled Christian Louboutin's that are covered in intricate patterns. Overall Okuma’s work focuses on refuting the stereotype that Native people constantly live in the past and need complexity. All things considered, numerous contemporary Indians arrange the harmony between standard life and conventional obligations.

Sources:

Allaire, C. (2021, March 16). Jamie Okuma’s Beaded Boots Are Inspired by a Bird With Character. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/jamie-okuma-beaded-boots-bird-design

Allaire, C. (2018, May 30). Meet 6 Indigenous Designers Using Fashion as Advocacy. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/indigenous-fashion-designers-cultural-appropriation-activism

About. (n.d.). Jamieokuma. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.jokuma.com/about