A Blackfoot woman is showcasing her family’s historic wardrobe in Okotoks.
Returning with an expanded exhibit, Alyssa Koski has curated A Century of Blackfoot Women’s Styles, a collection of historic examples of Blackfoot fashion from the last 100-200 years at the Okotoks Museum and Archives until June 30.
“It’s a collection of my grandmother’s dresses and shows traditional Blackfoot fashion ranging from around the 1850s to 1950s,” said Koski, who is of Kainai descent.
She assembled most of the collection from her family, specifically her grandmother Pauline Dempsey (nee Gladstone), who either preserved or recreated most of the pieces herself, even holding live fashion shows with the collection in past years.
“A lot of them are her personal pieces from family members, a lot of them are replicas she’s recreated based off her own grandmother’s and mother’s dresses,” Koski elaborated. “It’s just a really good way to see how women chose to design their own clothing based off of different cultural things happening at the time.”
This collection, she explained, shows the shift from pre-contact into modern times with European influences.
“You can see some of the European influence, how it affected the traditional Blackfoot designs and you can see how some of the traditional designs carried through to modern times,” Koski said. “It’s kind of an interesting view on the evolution of Blackfoot design.
“Especially a few pieces in there in particular; one of the new pieces I’ve shown this time specifically show some of the European influences, like it has a kind of cowboy kerchief and these removable sleeves as well.
“Also, the cut of the dresses would sometimes change over time, but sometimes the Blackfoot designer often would see something she liked in a European garment, and she would implement it into the Blackfoot fashion, but a lot of times in a very innovative way or a way that hybridizes the European and traditional Blackfoot styles.”
One of the new additions to the exhibit is a tactile board, bearing the various materials involved in Blackfoot crafts, for those curious about how the materials feel, as the exhibit garments are understandably off limits.
“So people have an opportunity to feel what the elements feel like, so the accessories and beadwork,” Koski said. “Because you can see it, and I don’t know if everyone’s like me, but you’re really tempted to touch.”
This gives the garments some reprieve from use after their long lives, sometimes on the runway.
“Before putting it on display, my grandmother always had it as a fashion show that was actually in movement, being worn, so it would get a lot of use and get a lot of touch,” Koski explained. “Because these are not retired designs, people still wear these clothes today, so seeing it in a museum setting is very different to how it’s been displayed before; showing that it’s in movement, showing that it’s a live, and showing that it’s still current.”
The exhibit runs until June 30 and more information can be found at OkotoksCulture.ca.
