'Threads of the Earth’: Indigenous fashion, culture and climate take the runway in Everett

A free fashion show at Everett Community College on Tuesday brought Indigenous design, storytelling and environmental awareness to the runway.

“Threads of the Earth: Climate Indigenous Fashion Show,” held at EvCC’s Jackson Conference Center, featured Indigenous designers and models presenting garments that blended traditional knowledge with contemporary fashion.

The show was part of a growing movement across the Pacific Northwest to elevate Indigenous fashion as both art and cultural expression. While large-scale Indigenous runway events are more established in places like Santa Fe, regional shows in Tacoma, Seattle and now Everett are creating space for Native designers to share their work locally.

Designs in Tuesday’s show reflected both tradition and innovation. In the Coast Salish region, including nearby Tulalip Tribes, fashion often draws from materials and techniques such as wool weaving, fringe skirts and natural fibers, alongside modern silhouettes. Many garments incorporated cultural symbols like orca, salmon and thunderbird motifs, which carry meanings tied to family, renewal and spiritual power.

The event’s climate theme added another layer, highlighting Indigenous perspectives on environmental stewardship and the relationship between people and the natural world.

The program opened with a reframing of Earth Day through an Indigenous lens, not as a once-a-year call to sustainability, but as a daily responsibility rooted in relationship. Rather than viewing land as a resource, speakers emphasized that the earth is a relative, one that demands care, reciprocity and respect.

This perspective shaped the entire event, connecting environmental responsibility directly to culture, identity and creative expression. That relationship was brought into sharp focus through Indigenous fashion, which speakers described as far more than aesthetic or personal expression.

Clothing and adornment are tied to land, materials and knowledge systems. The people use everything from plant fibers and animal hides to shells, dyes and weaving traditions, each carrying teachings about how to gather, prepare and honor them.

In this way, fashion becomes a living archive of identity, kinship and place, embedding stories of family, community and responsibility into every garment.

The discussion also acknowledged the historical trauma that disrupted these traditions.

“There was a time when indigenous people were not allowed to wear their traditional clothing,” one speaker explained. “Ceremonies were banned. Cultural practices were criminalized. Children were taken from their families and placed into boarding schools, where their identities were stripped away.

“With that came loss of land, access to traditional materials, disruptions of knowledge systems and attempts to erase indigenous history and identity.

“And fashion sits right at the intersection of that history, because when you lose access to land, you lose access to the materials when knowledge transmissions have been disrupted, you start to lose the techniques, language and meaning.

“And yet, despite all of that, our communities are still here. And so what I've heard from some of our elders at Tulalip is that we didn't lose the knowledge. We maintained it, we kept it hidden and safe so it could re-emerge, and that's what's happening today.”

Designers and community members are reclaiming techniques such as beading, weaving and sewing as acts of healing, resistance and sovereignty. Fashion, in this context, becomes activism, a way to assert identity, tell stories on Indigenous terms and challenge stereotypes, while reconnecting with land-based practices.

The fashion show itself embodied these ideas, featuring a range of regalia and designs that blended tradition with modern expression. Each piece carried cultural meaning, often handmade by the wearer or their community, with materials and symbols reflecting deep connections to environment and ancestry.

Ultimately, the event underscored that Indigenous fashion is inseparable from environmental stewardship. It reflects a worldview in which caring for the earth and maintaining cultural identity are one and the same – a reminder that sustainability, for Indigenous communities, is not a trend but a lived responsibility passed from generation to generation.

Unlike larger fashion productions, community-based shows like this often feature a mix of established and emerging designers, including students and regional artists. The runway may include everything from streetwear and contemporary dresses to pieces inspired by regalia and ceremonial clothing.

For Everett, the event represented both a cultural showcase and a sign of a growing Indigenous fashion presence in the Pacific Northwest.