Dorothy Grant
An Endless Thread
This stunning monograph highlights “matriarch of Indigenous fashion” Dorothy Grant’s work, which blends traditional Pacific Northwest Indigenous designs and shapes with haute couture.
The book accompanies a retrospective exhibition of Grant’s work at the Haida Gwaii Museum. It contains essays on her life and art that highlight her fashion mastery and trailblazing career. The photographs, many shot outdoors, feature the artist’s hand-picked models of a range of shapes and ages. Her bestselling Feastwear line manifests Indigenous pride and power, described by wearers and fashion critics alike as being transformative and incorporating reverence for ancestors, animals, and supernatural beings.
The garments sprout appliques, buttons, and beads and exhibit the forms and lines of traditional Indigenous clothing. After learning to weave traditional spruce-root baskets, Grant developed elegant fur-felt hats that reference these patterns and shapes. The distinctive hats, capes, and dresses blur the lines between crafts, decorative arts, and fine art, elevating traditional forms in stature. And in an illuminating essay, Grant pays homage to her teachers, collaborators, and protegees with thoughtful comments about cultural appropriation by other designers. She also stresses the importance of detail, quality construction and textiles, and understanding traditional history and symbolism.
Dorothy Grant reveals the inspiring backstory of an artist who has always been at the height of fashion.
Reviewed by
Rachel Jagareski
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
