The B. Yellowtail Collective is finally up and running, and looking great!
Anthony Thosh Collins – Thoshograpy.com
Models: Linsay Willier (left), Shania Russell (center), and Gabrielle Lopez (right). Native fashion designer icon Bethany Yellowtail (Northern Cheyenne and Crow tribes) just launched a e-commerce retail expansion in partnership with a group of Native American artists on her website known as The B. Yellowtail Collective.
Native fashion designer icon Bethany Yellowtail (Northern Cheyenne and Crow tribes) just launched a e-commerce retail expansion in partnership with a group of Native American artists on her website known as The B. Yellowtail Collective.
The Collective will benefit a group of Native artists selling their Native made fashion retail goods on the BYellowtail.com website.
According to a release put out by Yellowtail, the e-commerce retail initiative features jewelry, beadwork, textiles, handbags, and other accessories handmade by each of the artists. All pieces are one-of-a-kind, created through traditional design methods passed down for many generations.
Since the inception of Yellowtail’s clothing line in 2014, the designer says she has envisioned a collaborative project with Native American artists and designers who often lack retail opportunities due to their remote locales.
“What makes The Collective so unique is that the people will now have a direct connection to the authentic, creative source of what they’re purchasing. It is very important to know and understand the artist behind the work,” Yellowtail said.
“There will now be a face and a name behind their work, not just a generic idea of Native American product,” Yellowtail said, “Consumers will be able to see their faces, hear their voices, and understand the significance and individuality behind their designs and concepts.”
Yellowtail tells ICTMN she was inspired to create the Collective when she was moving from Los Angeles back to her home communities on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne nations. Shifting from the fast-pace of L.A. caused her to rethink and re-evaluate her goals for her company.
She says one moment in particular inspired the Collective.
“I was at a gas station in Lame Deer, MT and a man came up to me and asked if I wanted to buy some earrings he made. I asked him, ‘WOW, how much?!’ They were absolutely exquisite. He said, ‘15.00, I just need gas money.’ That moment, a light bulb went off. At first, I felt really sad because the earrings were incredible and what he was asking for was so beneath their true value. Poverty, unemployment and lack of job opportunities is so real, especially in the Northern Plains region. So, accompanied by several other moments like that while I was living back home, I decided I need to use my platform as an opportunity to create real sustainable change. Launching “The Collective” is just the stepping stone for the true potential of our brand.
Yellowtail says that she hopes to provide more opportunity for artists in her life. She also offered words of advice to aspiring native designers and young native people in general.
Model Martin Sensmeier (left) Necklaces by Alaynee Goodwill & Kendorina Redhouse Cuffs by Alaynee Goodwill & Thomas Yellowtail. Model Stephen Yellowtail (right) Choker by Karis Jackson, Bolo tie by Susanne Stewart, Cuffs by Elias Not Afraid. Photo: Anthony Thosh Collins – Thoshograpy.com
The B. Yellowtail Collective. Article at ICTMN.
The male model in the 2nd photo (on our left) I wonder what he does to have forearms like that. The last guy I knew with lower arm muscles like that was my iaido sensei… But that’s his left arm.
That is also a really high grade “surly glare”he has going on there.
I love trying to decompile commercial photography to see what’s embedded in it. The emotional balance between the two male models is really interesting. And in the first photo the women are presenting a solid, unified, pose.
I don’t think there’s a surly glare there at all, it’s the same problem women have with ‘resting bitch face’, and other resting face problems. It used to be that people didn’t auto-smile like they do know, so everyone was more used to resting faces. Now, everyone sees them as something dire. Rick has lower arm muscles like that, just from work.
There’s also the problem of non-Indians reading all kinds of negatives into Indigenous models, because indigenous people are still very much other, and not only other, but scary, savage, untrustworthy other. It might be cool to buy their beads and trinkets, but y’know, can’t trust ’em. Ever.
I apologize if I appeared to be projecting stereotypes. :/ I totally did not mean that -- it’s probably my own hypersensitivity to aggression that’s talking.
I pick up that he’s the only model that’s not facing the camera, that’s showing muscle, stuff like that. As someone who’s done a lot of work with models, I don’t assume it’s got much more meaning than how the model projects, and it’s definitely seldom deliberate.
The whole “rbf” thing is interesting to me. People’s faces and bodies do fall into poses that are comfortable and this characteristic for them. Whether someone intends it or not we look at some people and think “they look unhappy” or “they look tired” In photography, especially commercial photography, it’s the viewer’s immediate perception that matters. I used to have a friend who always looked sad to me and one day I realized it was just that he furrowed up his brow because his glasses prescription was off.
No, no, you’re fine, Marcus. I was just making a general statement. There are a lot more photos on the site, of course, including the men on horseback. I think the body juxtaposition is a fairly common one in fashion photos, so you can see how things look from different angles. I don’t exactly keep up with fashion stuff anymore, but I recall that the juxtaposition pose was more common in men’s fashion, as men are very interested in how clothing would make them look in profile.
As you note, it’s also more handy for the whole muscle business, and that is a major factor in a lot of male modeling.
I find the whole RF business interesting too, but probably for a somewhat different reason. I could not even begin to count the times in 50 years that I have heard “smile!” or “it can’t be that bad, smile!” or similar from a complete stranger, always male. When you’re a woman, you realize very early that you’re supposed to be an ornament. Always.
I think society inadvertently reveals a tremendous amount about itself based on the way it represents itself in commercials. As much as I despise marketing, it is sometimes a great source of inadvertent truth.
I’ll also admit that I didn’t comment on the women in the photo because they are stunning and glorious and I love the way they are presented as a unified front with an emotional ambiguity that is neither defensive nor coy. They are just being glorious. Whoever did that shot really did a good job with it, but any of those models -- including the guys -- you’d have to be a pretty bad photographer to make them look bad. Or a genius of a certain twisted variety.
Now I remember -- there are more models side shot, or partially side shot in men’s fashion, because that’s the man version of “does this make me look fat?” Women are more concerned with how clothes look from the front and back.
Yup. That’s true!
Commercial photography, in its high form, is a corrupted art. I have so many layers of ambivalence going on there it is very hard to pick it apart.
Oh my goodness, negatives??? These are stunning people in stunning outfits and… I’m late catching up with your posts over the past couple of days, but I think I’ll be lingering with this one for a while! Stunning and glorious sounds about right.