Trickster Gallery fashion show

Youth fashion show promises to turn headsThe American Indian Center of Chicago’s Trickster Gallery is excited to announce its very first Navajo Fashion Show. Up-and-coming Navajo designer, LeAnn Ward, along with her mother Lillian Bancroft from Arizona, will showcase their one-of-a-kind traditional and contemporary designs on the runway. Their beautiful fashions will be modeled by young Native American girls and boys, ages newborn to teens, from the Chicago area. This event is the first of it’s kind in Chicago.

“I started sewing in mid-2007, but before that I always used to design my own clothing in high school and have my mom sew them for me. I knew that I always wanted to carry on the tradition of sewing, and once I became a mother, it was my calling to start,” says designer LeAnn Ward. “My mother Lillian Bancroft has been sewing since junior high. To this day she sews for her mother, my Grandma Nez Bancroft, whose naturally woven rug will be in the show as well. My Grandma is a rug weaver and pottery maker who speaks only Navajo.”

Designs by LeAnn Ward have previously been exhibited as part of the Native American Women’s Artists Guild and Spirited Daughters, which are both Chicago area organizations featuring Native American female artists. This is her and her mother’s first show, and will represent three generations, as LeAnn’s daughters will be modeling during the show.Comment:  For more on the subject, see 2nd Annual First Nations Fashion Show and Native Designers at Fashion Week.