Reclaiming the body: strategies of resistance in Virgil Ortiz's fashion designs

Abstract

This paper analyses the fashion spectacles of Virgil Ortiz, a Cochiti potter-turned-fashion designer whose clothing critiques high fashion consumerism, celebrates Indianness and expresses Native pride, and opens a dialogue pertaining to issues of resistance and acts of subversion. As a young potter, Ortiz learned the art of making Muños from his family. This 100-year-old figurative pottery tradition is associated with social commentary, and Ortiz extends this practice to clothing to challenge American fashion culture and express pride in his Pueblo heritage. Ortiz transfers Cochiti aesthetic concepts to the world of fashion: he uses Cochiti composition and colour theory, the tradition of parody and social commentary through performance, storytelling and oral tradition themes, and cultural continuity through subversive creativity. In other words, he uses the lens of Cochiti aesthetics to understand, and express to others, the world around him. To advance his goal of promoting Native language and arts, Ortiz incorporates Pueblo stories and symbols into his garments and shows. As a former governor of his pueblo, Ortiz recognises and values the important roles that language and the arts play in cultural continuity and promoting ideas of sovereignty, self-governance, and nationhood. Ortiz reaffirms ideas pertaining to Cochiti nationhood by ensuring that traditional artistic practices persist.