Fashion(s) from the Northwest Coast: Nuu-chah-nulth Design Iterations

Abstract

Carved and painted onto wood, stone, bone, animal skins, or metal, or woven and knitted into cloth, the material culture from Northwest Coast Native peoples has historically been a one-of-a-kind iteration and a declaration of familial rights and privileges. These items have adorned public and private spaces, including the body, and were traditionally produced by hand. In recent years, some designs have been serialized and mass produced through new technologies such as silk screen and digital printing, adorning everything from coffee mugs to t-shirts, sunglasses, jewelry, and other garments (Roth 2012; Roth 2015). This chapter explores the history of Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations specifically and analyzes their distinctive aesthetics and design practice through the lens of fashion theory. The chapter concludes with a discussion of contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth designers and the circulation of their work. I ask: how does fashion operate within Nuu-chah-nulth social organization and how has ongoing colonialism and hybridization of prestige and capitalist economies transformed Nuu-chah-nulth fashion systems and design ideas? The findings discussed in this chapter draw from ongoing ethnographic research (beginning in October 2009) and archival- and museum-based research at both major and minor institutional repositories in the United States, Canada, Germany, and England.