By Dan Ninham
Wendy Merrill (enrolled member and D2 Representative of the Mille Lacs Band) hosted the Adult Christmas Party on December 22, 2024 at the Grand Casino Mille Lacs Events and Convention Center in Onamia. Merrill asked Adrienne Benjamin (Mille Lacs Band) what she thought about doing a fashion show.
“I did ask Adrienne in September what she thought about doing a fashion show,” said Wendy Merrill. “I wanted to showcase local artists like Adrienne. She came up with the ‘looks’ and I was asked to be a model.”
The fashion show showcased the model with their dress and accessories, including headwear, and a musical piece for the runway walk.
“I’ve been sewing since I was a teenager,” said Benjamin. “I was fortunate enough to be mentored by Nichole Ray of Pow Wow Fabrics and Designs as a young person. She was intent on finding someone from Mille Lacs to teach how to sew well, as she believed it was important because of all of the sewing needs of ceremony, having the jingle dress story, and blanket making being a root community asset.”
“She gave me a boot camp at her house over a weekend and taught me how to construct a jingle dress from beginning to end, how to resize a pattern, how to do applique work, and other tips and tricks about construction. Without her, I wouldn’t have ever even considered fashion or sewing as a possibility. She made it seem easy, fun, and like something that was worth unharnessing my creativity for.”
“My favorite artwork will always be jingle dresses,” said Benjamin. “They hold a significant spot in my heart, in my community, and in my artistic mind. I started out after learning from Nichole and just making a few dresses here and there and that turned into making them for more people. Soon they were also getting better and better and now I’ve made dresses for Champion jingle dress Ikwewag (women) across Anishinaabe akiing (US and Canada).”
Indigenous core values influenced Benjamin’s artwork. By being grounded in the ways of the Anishinaabeg she created each clothing artwork piece into being culturally significant to her, the people and the wearer.
“I was lucky enough to be mentored by the late great Amikogaabaw’iban (Larry Smallwood),” said Benjamin. “The knowledge that he instilled in me I forever hold in my heart. Being from Mille Lacs, it is never far from me how incredibly lucky we are to have our ceremonies and many parts of our ways of life alive and intact.”
“I’m forever grateful for those elders that held that knowledge for us. For me as an artist, it’s important to always hold true to my roots and to create things that are traditional and respectful while also pushing new boundaries of creativity and beauty,” added Benjamin.
“This has been an ongoing movement by several artists and historians to bring our fashions and old ways of dress back into being and living ways,” said Benjamin. “The dresses and looks that I created for this fashion show were inspired by the hood that Lavender Kingbird made for a different fashion show, what I learned in my own research, and the way I envision a current existence of these wearable items now.”
“Ikwe wiiwakwaan means Women’s hats or hoods,” said Lavender Kingbird (Red Lake Ojibwe). “I consulted with a fellow lodge member from Three Fires, Siobhan Marks. She said the shape was the same as the babies moss bags, which served as protection … swaddling them.”
“The hoods may or may not have a tie to hold in place, they are easily removable for daily tasks. The designs decorated on them served as clan and identity roles,” Kingbird added.
In the exhibition at The National Museum of the American Indian titled “Infinity of Nations,” a hood made and worn by an Ojibwe woman in the mid-19th century was pictured. (https://americanindian.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/woodlands/135898.html)
“For this show specifically, I wanted to imagine a world, perhaps with a more harmonious feeling post contact,” said Benjamin. “Where our women were adorned in the most beautiful dresses that were a fusion of a woodland look and a jingle dress, and blanketed in natural themes.”
The headwear were also culturally significant on one side and on a part of the fantasy and imaginative side as well.
“It all was chosen to represent the theme of the ‘Winter Woodland Royalty,’” said Benjamin. “Deer antlers, leaf crowns, and metal crystal crowns to show the adornment of natural items.”
In referring to cultural significance of the crown, Benjamin said: “Sometimes there isn’t one. It’s just an imaginative concept that brings together natural elements with the artwork. We were a people who used everything and didn’t waste. It was just a dream concept of an Anishinaabe crown idea.”
“An imagination of a world that once was or could have been. Where all of the natural elements came together to adorn and compliment the power of our most successful women leaders,” added Benjamin.
Benjamin introduced her fashion show collection thoughts that included the theme of each look. She said, “I was really inspired by the idea of creating looks that bridge between the sparkle of the most elegant event but still hold heavy on tradition. I wanted to create feminine looks that were dresses of my dreams and honor so many small nuisances that inspire me. To think about ways that our powerful women would look in a contemporary yet whimsical ideation of ‘Winter Woodland Royalty.’ This is a collection that I’ve always wanted to do.”
She told the audience in preparation for the fashion show to begin: “Each of these women who are walking this floor tonight inspire me greatly and it is my greatest honor to adorn them and make them feel as beautiful, seen, and important as possible.”
