A newcomer had the crowd at the annual Santa Fe Indian Market fashion show in New Mexico buzzing with anticipation earlier this month. Presenting his first full collection, titled Regalian Bodies, 27-year-old Plains Cree designer Jontay Kahm wowed the audience with his sculptural assortment of technically impressive feather and fringe gowns; each one more colorful and exuberant than the next. “I really wanted to stand out with this show, because it was my big debut,” Kahm tells Vogue. Talk about starting out with a bang.
Hailing from the Mosquito First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, Kahm can date his love of fashion back to November of 2009. That was when Lady Gaga released her music video for “Bad Romance,” filled with otherworldly Alexander McQueen costumes. “As a kid from the rez with no internet, I was obsessed. I wanted to copy all of the designs she was wearing,” says Kahm. After he saw the video, he began sketching his own designs for fun. “I was not surrounded by fashion whatsoever, so it was like [being introduced to] this whole new world that I had no idea existed.”
A fan of McQueen and futuristic designers like Iris van Herpen, Kahm became obsessed with the idea of silhouette and shape, and decided to teach himself how to sew. “I had my first fashion show in my high school gymnasium, as part of a talent show,” says Kahm, who showed just a few organza and feather dresses. He continued his path by studying at postsecondary institutions such as Vancouver’s Blanche Macdonald, Poughkeepsie’s Marist College, and Santa Fe’s Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), which he recently graduated from. His thesis project for IAIA was the collection that he eventually showed in Santa Fe earlier this month.
His couture pieces are all sorts of extravagant. Kahm toyed with sculptural, voluminous dresses inspired by his Indigenous culture, abstract art, and the afterlife. “I played around with the idea of feather dresses, bustles, and ribbon dresses—taking ribbon skirts and making them ribbon gowns,” says Kahm (although his are actually made using strands of yarn). “I wanted to touch on my Native culture and elements of traditional regalia—using obvious shapes and silhouettes, but making it more fashion.”
His showstopper is the Transcendence dress, which draws from a traditional fancy dance bustle that male powwow dancers wear as part of their regalia. While bustles are traditionally made using eagle feathers, Kahm’s version is made with duck feathers and turkey quills. His shapely Forget-Me-Not gown was also shaped out of blue feathers and held together by turkey quills. Both are early concepts that he’s had in his mind since he first started envisioning the collection two years ago. “I never draw illustrations of my dresses, because that takes away from the creativity of actually assembling the dresses,” says Kahm. “I see it in my head, and I just go for it. It’s already downloaded into my head.”
Much like McQueen, Kahm’s work has a dark sentimentality. Many of his gowns draw from the concept of death and the afterlife. His black feather Overcast dress, for instance, symbolizes “transitioning from an earthly body to a heavenly one,” says Kahm, while his Afflictions cape takes cues from the silhouette of a body bag, worn over a blue fringed gown. His electric-green and mossy Void dress references “abandoned buildings and nature taking over.” His other signatures are his avant-garde forms and vibrant colors. The latter is a direct influence from Kahm’s late father, the painter Jeff Kahm. “He loved abstract art,” says Kahm.
The designer’s singular vision—not to mention his high skill level for being so young—is certainly what cements his status as a rising star to watch. And going forward, you can expect to see even more creativity from the emerging talent. He’ll be coming to New York City to complete his masters degree at Parsons. “I want to do more feather dresses and to continue incorporating my cultural background,” says Kahm. “I also want to make more wearable dresses that you could buy off the rack. Right now, it’s very hot glue and a prayer.”
