Jamie Okuma
- mlny4ever00
- Apr 17, 2021
- 1 min read
Jamie Okuma is a Luiseño and Shoshone-Bannock beadwork-artist and designer, renowned for her reimagining of Native couture. Her artistry interweaves traditional Native American beadwork and styles with contemporary couture fashion, known for her reimagined designer heels that reflect Native cultures. Okuma began beading as a child, teaching herself in order to design her own regalia on the powwow trail. Her beadwork has won her six “Best in Show” awards from the Santa Fe Indian Market and the Heart Indian Art Market, making her the second artist to ever do so. Her work has been shown in exhibitions internationally and she has permeant collections at The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Denver Art Museum and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
“There’s No Place Like Home”
Taking the shoes initially designed by Giuseppe Zanotti, Okuma pays homage to her ancestral land in her beading of "Hólyulkum." The beading is also done in a deep-crimson, reminiscent of the Ruby Slippers from Wizard of Oz, meant to embody her connection to her tribe and home.
"Adaptation II"
Christian Louboutin's heels have been hand-beaded by Okuma, detailed with glass beads, porcupine quills, chicken feathers, buckskin, cloth, deer rawhide, and sterling silver cones that are used in traditional Native American craft art but absent in contemporary fashion.
"Swallow Boots"
These boots are on permanent display at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Her glass-beadwork depicts the flight of swallows on a pair of designer boots. The process of her beading a similar pair of boots, but with images of Elk, is posted on her Youtube channel.
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