{"id":226749,"date":"2025-09-16T13:14:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=226749"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:40:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:40:48","slug":"press-release-decolonizing-wealth-celebrates-inaugural-indigenous-new-york-fashion-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/09\/16\/press-release-decolonizing-wealth-celebrates-inaugural-indigenous-new-york-fashion-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Release: Decolonizing Wealth celebrates inaugural Indigenous New York Fashion Week"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Celebrating<\/a>
From left: Tyler Glasses, Naiomi Glasses, Edgar Villanueva and Kayla Lookinghorse-Smith attend Celebrating Indigeneity at NYFW – Decolonizing Wealth Project x Relative Arts Indigenous on September 15, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Daniel Zuchnik\/Getty Images for Decolonizing Wealth Project<\/figcaption>\r\n
Decolonizing Wealth Project partners with Relative Arts to host Indigenous NYWF Wrap Party<\/div>\r\n
The evening celebrated Indigenous fashion designers, models, and creators, bringing visibility to Native leaders and disruptors in the fashion industry<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, September 16, 2025<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe following is the text of a September 16, 2025, press release from Decolonizing Wealth Project<\/a>.<\/em>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n• PHOTOS: \u2018Celebrating Indigeneity In Fashion\u2019<\/a><\/strong>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

NEW YORK, NY — On Monday, September 15, Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) partnered with Relative Arts to host their annual event celebrating Indigeneity at New York Fashion Week (NYFW). This year\u2019s event, entitled \u201cCELEBRATING INDIGENEITY IN FASHION\u201d, closed out the inaugural Indigenous New York Fashion Week<\/a>, which hosted runways at The Grace Exhibition Space featuring Indigenous design, style, and storytelling.<\/p>\r\n

This year’s event shone a spotlight on Indigenous excellence across all facets of the fashion industry, from design to philanthropy. Attendees included Erica Alexander, Phillip Bread, Lakeisha Marie, Christian Allaire, Gavi Stroemer, Hud Oberly, Mato Wayuhi, Relative Arts Founders Korina Emmerich, Nishina Loft, and Liana Shewey, as well as Native designers Naiomi Glasses and Tyler Glasses, Vina Brown of Copper Canoe Woman, Kayla Smith Lookinghorse of K. Lookinghorse, Josh Tafoya, the Pacha Arts team, Omar Monroy, Sabrina Lombardo, Sage Addington, and more. <\/p>\r\n

Now in its fifth year, DWP\u2019s annual NYFW event is one of the ways the organization lifts up the Native community by convening Indigenous designers, models, and creatives with funders and allies to spark new connections and possibilities for the future. The event is the only annual space during NYFW dedicated to celebrating Indigenous creatives in the fashion industry and the legacy and impact of Native American culture on fashion.<\/p>\r\n

“This year\u2019s event is especially important as we celebrate Relative Arts and the inaugural Indigenous New York Fashion Week,\u201d said Edgar Villanueva, Founder and CEO of the Decolonizing Wealth Project. \u201cFor years, we’ve worked to bring together indigenous designers, artists, creators, and models with major players in the fashion industry, and for years, we were the only dedicated space during NYFW that celebrated Indigenous talent. To see how this gathering has grown affirms so much of our work and is truly demonstrative of how powerful Native folks are when we stand behind one another and lift each other up.\u201d <\/p>\r\n

The evening featured a set by DJ Leelander, food, drinks, and conversation at JIMMY rooftop in SoHo. Attendees received gift bags featuring products from Lush Cosmetics and a soft launch of a new t-shirt from DWP produced in collaboration with Bridgeforth Cotton – a Black-owned cotton farm in Alabama that has been family operated since 1877, when it was purchased by a formerly enslaved farmer, George Bridgeforth. The DWP x Bridgeforth T-shirt features the word \u201cHealer\u201d on the front and will be part of the DWP\u2019s national collective care campaign rollout in 2025. <\/p>\r\n

Decolonizing Wealth Project and Relative Arts extend their heartfelt gratitude to all the participants, sponsors, and attendees who made this celebration possible. Together, the two organizations continue to honor and uplift the voices of Indigenous communities, ensuring their talent and traditions are recognized and respected.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n
ABOUT DECOLONIZING WEALTH PROJECT (decolonizingwealth.com<\/a>)<\/div>\r\n Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP)\u2019s mission is to transform wealth into collective wellbeing. Established in 2018, and led by Edgar Villanueva, an Indigenous award-winning author, and expert on wealth, spirituality, and social justice, DWP operates through three key strategies: sector transformation, storytelling and culture, and reparative giving. DWP\u2019s work has radically transformed the philanthropic sector and has facilitated the distribution of nearly $1 billion for social justice efforts. DWP has granted over $23 million to support economic solidarity, wellbeing, and earth and climate efforts through its fund and 700+ member donor community, Liberated Capital. \r\n \r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year\u2019s event took place during the first-ever Indigenous New York Fashion Week.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1,31],"tags":[6758,6759,814,34],"class_list":["post-226749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-national","category-press-release","tag-decolonizing-wealth","tag-edgar-villanueva","tag-fashion","tag-new-york","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/16\/2235192039.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-WZf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226749"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227011,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226749\/revisions\/227011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}