Beginning in the 1960s, the Northwest Coast Revival movement saw Indigenous artists from the Haida to the Kwakwakwa reviving their traditional craft styles in areas such as Alaska, Washington and British Columbia. Pioneering artists such as Bill Reid and Art Thompson began reviving the unique masks, blankets, spruce root hats and totem poles made for centuries by their ancestors, starting a movement that continues until the art movement of the 1990s. Meanwhile, a similar movement is taking place on a larger scale, with a new book highlighting the work of a specific Aboriginal designer who paved the way for the movement.
Released today, Dorothy Grant: An Endless Thread pays tribute to the work of the fashion-forward Haida designer who began her career in the 1980s. Born into the Crow Clan in Heidelberg, Alaska, Grant began learning to sew and weave from her maternal grandmother at age 13 and began making regalia for the community’s Haida dance group. In 1989, she launched her first clothing line, called Festwear. It features hand-applied modern silhouettes from Northwest Coast molding lines — a Native art style that uses flowing curves to outline abstract symbols like bears and eagles. Grant was one of the first to do this through a modern style.
It didn’t take long for the fashion world to take notice of his unique work. Since showing his first collection at a Vancouver hotel, Grant has quickly made a name for himself — holding shows everywhere from Paris to Tokyo and exhibiting his collections at museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. In 2015, he was also named an Officer of the Order of Canada, a prestigious honor recognizing his contributions to the fashion industry and his work mentoring youth. (More recently, Grant has been visiting aboriginal communities to work with young people, teaching them how to make felt hats.)
Delving deeper into this new book, readers can explore four decades of Grant’s meaningful and captivating designs. Her traditional button-up robes, patterned scarf tops and dresses, and signature hats can be seen everywhere from the natural surroundings of British Columbia to the runways of the annual Santa Fe Indian Market Aboriginal Fashion Show. Grant’s sketches, personal stories, and reflections also appear throughout the book.
In an industry that often overlooks homegrown talent, The Endless Clue is a long-awaited celebration for Grant, who has long championed the intersection of preserving cultural pride, style, and tradition. “This book was seventeen years in the making — to see it come to fruition is indescribable to me,” Grant wrote gratefully. The book captures the past: moods, places, events, and most importantly, people.
