Native American Women in Clothing Design – Virginia Yazzie-Ballenger –
I spent part of my childhood in New Mexico. My parents raised us to love all people because Jesus does. So, it was really exciting to visit Navajo and Hopi reservations. One of my fondest memories is of visiting Native American ruins that remain in the sides of cliffs. My childish imagination ran wild as I tried to picture families living so high up. I don’t know if we visited this one in the picture or not, but it sure looks familiar! The good news is you can visit it today.
We visited Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations.
My mother bought some turquoise and silver jewelry fashioned by Hopis and Navajos. While my parents shopped we played with the native children. Tag was a favorite!
Our story this week is about a Navajo woman who has worked hard to preserve her culture using her talents in fashion design – Virginia Yazzie-Ballenger.
Virginia Yazzie-Ballenger (Navajo)
Virginia Yazzie-Ballenger was born in Lake Springs, New Mexico. She is a member of the Meadow People Clan born for the Bitter Water Clan of Navajo people. She graduated from Gallup High School in 1975 and went on to attend Loma Linda University in Riverside, California, and pattern making at Texas Women’s University in Texas.
Her parents were sheep farmers and you can listen to an interesting interview about her life. It’s an interesting glimpse about how Native people’s lives were controlled by the government. Her parents, who were renting from the government, had to kill all their sheep and replace them with a different breed for a different type of wool. You can hear the story in her own voice here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ7DQhlMttI
Virginia showed an early interest in clothing design when she cut out models from catalogues and used them as paper dolls. She designed the dresses for them to wear. She would eventually get into clothing design when she could not find any clothing that was reflective of her native Navajo culture.
Virginia had many jobs and career changes. She was a beautiful woman and won the Miss Indian New Mexico pageant in 1982. She also represented the Santa Fe Railroad as Miss Safety Queen. She felt that she could represent her heritage better though if she had clothing that was more traditional to the Navajo culture so she began to make her own.
Inspired by the photographs of historical Navajo clothing she created fashions out of velvet. The patterns were typical for Navajo. Though she loved the traditional patterns, Viriginia created some of her own. They are now sought after as beautiful wearable art.
Virginia’s design work earned her the opportunity to study historical Indian garments at the Smithsonian in New York City. The Southwestern Association of Indian Arts (SWAIA), which produces the world-renowned Santa Fe Indian Market, awarded her a fellowship.
She was a founding designer of Navajo Spirit Southwestern Wear. Navajo Spirit was Established in 1984 as a pioneer in designing Native American inspired clothing and accessories. Their creations seek to blend the richness of tradition with contemporary style, resulting unique and enduring fashions.
This is an ad, but you can see and hear her in her own words:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLvcrq5pGRU
Navajo Spirit was featured in Native Peoples magazine in the July-August edition and in New MexicoMagazine in 2001. Virginia has exhibited her work in many venues including the Heard Museum in Phoenix; Red Earth exhibition in Oklahoma City; the Gallup Ceremonial and the Santa Fe Market.
Not surprisingly, she has won many awards including being honored for Best of Class by the Indian Arts and Crafts Association. She has shown her work throughout the Southwest at many events including the New Mexico State Fair.
Gordon Bronitsky, founder of Anthropologists in Practice, says in an interesting article that one of his favorite projects was helping Virginia Yazzie-Ballenger in a one-woman show in Moscow at the U.S. Embassy.[1] He founded Anthropologists in Practice to work with individual artists around the world who want to preserve their culture. They seek out people who want to speak for their cultures in their own voices. They specialize in working with indigenous groups. He has helped Virginia and Navajo Spirit to market their products.
By Virginia Ballenger:
I have been designing Native American inspired clothing since 1984. When I was in high school I entered Indian queen pageants–it was an avenue for me to learn about certain aspects of my culture. I would spend time with my mother, as she taught me how to weave a Navajo rug and we would go out to collect plants and use them to dye the wool. Through the ensuing years, I held seven different queen titles, the last of which was Miss Indian New Mexico in 1980. The titles I held required that I dress in my traditional Navajo outfits. This prompted me to learn how to sew.
I enjoy sewing and working with fabrics. A lot of the Navajo Spirit clothing line consists of velvet, trimmed with silver conchos. We also make coats, jackets, and vests from Pendleton blankets and carry a line of craft items such as golf club covers, purses, steering wheel covers and scarves, all made from the Pendleton pieces left over from the vests. We get very busy at graduation time, outfitting all the local graduates in Navajo style clothing.
Our business is very important to our community, as people turn to us to outfit them with Navajo clothing for school events, weddings, traditional ceremonies, and any event where they want to dress up and represent their heritage with their clothing.
I have traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia in 2004 to do fashion shows and share my culture, at the request of the US Embassy. In 2007, the Kellogg Foundation sponsored a cultural exchange visit to South Africa for a group of Native American artists, of which I was a part. We were included in a spectacular fashion show in Johannesburg, South Africa with a group of South African designers.
Just recently I was at the Smithsonian in New York City to speak about the history of Navajo fashion during Native American Heritage Month, and I also traveled to Yakutsk, Russia to participate in a fashion show (Solar Deer), which featured indigenous designers.
I love what I do and it is my way of carrying on my Navajo tradition.
As far as I can tell, she is still alive and designing fashions. You can find items for sale at:
https://navajospirit.com/index&pg=home.html
[1] https://anthropologizing.com/2013/08/10/anthropologists-in-practice-an-interview-with-indigenous-performing-arts-promoter-gordon-bronitsky/
