- Details
- By Darren Thompson
PHOENIX — Hunkpapa Lakota fashion designer Kayla Lookinghorse-Smith is in the midst of a tremendous year, as she prepares to showcase her brand K.Lookinghorse in the Phoenix Fashion Week’s “Emerging Designer of the Year” program next weekend.
The popular fashion event will take place on October 20-21, at the Chateau Luxe in Phoenix, Arizona. The Phoenix fashion show attracts some of the most ambitious fashion models and designers throughout the country.
“Participating in the Phoenix Fashion Week’s emerging designer bootcamp has given me so much inspiration and fire to continue to push myself and brand forward,” Lookinghorse-Smith, the owner of K.Lookinghores, said to Native News Online.
Lookinghorse-Smith is an enrolled citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Currently, based in Southampton, New York with her family on traditional Shinecock Indian Territory, she considers her brand contemporary that honors her Lakota and Dakota heritage and extended family, or tiospaye in Lakota.
Lookinghorse-Smith strives to create intriguing, wearable art and statement jewelry pieces and she has several collaborations including Generation One by LXL, a Native American and African American women owned clothing collaboration.
Lookinghorse-Smith has prepared an entirely new look for her showcase at the PFW’s fashion show on Saturday evening.
"Empowerment Piece" by Kayla Lookinghorse-Smith (Photo/K.Lookhorse)
“I started a totally new design, mid-summer,” Lookinghorse-Smith said. “I felt I wanted to focus on my ‘ready-to-wear’ clothing.”
Lookinghorse-Smith found out about the Phoenix Fashion Week’s designer of the year program earlier this year from the organization, when they reached out to encourage her to apply for its competitive fashion designer bootcamp. Their interaction led to virtual meetings, to being accepted as one of ten fashion designers chosen for its “Emerging Designer of the Year” program. The bootcamp teaches a rigorous curriculum aimed at strengthening business acumen, writing press releases and interaction with media, developing a brand and so much more.
Phoenix Fashion Week’s ten brands that are competing for Emerging & Accessory Designer of the Year for 2024, are Aloha Glamour from Gulf Port, Mississippi; Frequency Collection of Phoenix, Arizona; Gemifly of Phoenix, Arizona; K. Lookinghorse based in South Hampton, New York; Luebbert Swim from Portland, Oregon; Olivia Noire from Gilbert, Arizona; RAINE from Phoenix, Arizona; Sloane Design from Scottsdale, Arizona; The Lost Cove Co., Los Angeles, California; and Throne of Grace Clothing, based in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Phoenix Fashion Week is considered the leading fashion event in the Southwest and over the last several years, Indigenous talent and skill have wowed crowds and has gained popularity.
Phoenix Fashion Week’s last designer of the year was Norma Baker-Flyinghorse, a Dakota and Hidatsa fashion designer from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Baker-Flyinghorse’s fashion brand Red Berry Woman was awarded a $10,000 cash prize and commercial partnership.
Beyond the Phoenix Fashion Week, Lookinghorse-Smith is preparing for an international showing at the Vancouver Fashion Week, scheduled for November 2023, where she was preparing for a full 10-piece couture release.
Preparation for a fashion show varies from show to show, and designer to designer, and in this case,
Time constraints and commitments to other fashion shows were her reasoning for choosing ready-to-wear items to showcase in the Phoenix Fashion Week competition. “Phoenix Fashion Week was that fire I needed to just go, and it created a creative spark to create a new collection,” she said.
K. Lookinghorse will introduce The Timeless Collection at the Phoenix Fashion Week this weekend.
“The Timeless Collection for K. Lookinghorse stands out amongst designers for its authentic Indigenous designed garments with an aesthetic specific to her family,” the Phoenix Fashion Week organization said in a statement of Kayla Lookinghorse’s designs. “The patterned dresses and statement jackets are the cornerstone for her fast-growing brand. A brand where storytelling meets comfort and glamor to naturally empower women.”
Her prior commitments this year included the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s fashion show scheduled at its Reservation Economic Summit’s 40 Under 40 Celebration, the Black Hills Fashion Show, Minneapolis Fashion Week, and IllumiNative’s Inaugural Indigenous House in Hollywood this past Friday, October 13.
“This new collection, I rushed the order, and I received the last samples last week,” she said. “It’s been rush, preparing for Phoenix Fashion Week.”
She thanked her graphic designer, Chad Yellowjohn, for getting her prepared to compete for PFW’s Emerging Designer of the Year. “He helped complete my vision,” she said of Yellowjohn. “He made the vision come to life.”
“The tools that I have gathered throughout the summer, from Phoenix Fashion Week, I'm already completely happy with where I am,” Lookinghorse-Smith said. “To become the Emerging Design of the Year would be absolutely amazing, but it’s not the icing on the cake for me. I have built so many relationships by utilizing the tools that the Phoenix Fashion Week gave me and that’s everlasting.”
Beyond this coming weekend at the Phoenix event, Lookinghorse has an additional full-couture line she has prepared for her international showing at the Vancouver Fashion Week later this November, a Red Carpet appearance for Jhane Myers’ Emmy nomination in January 2024, and showcasing at the Indigenous Fashion Arts Festival in Canada in April 2024.
For more information on the Phoenix Fashion Week, or this weekend’s schedule of events, visit their website at www.phoenixfashionweek.com.
More Stories Like This
"Your'e No Indian" Examines the Disenrollment IssueAgua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians to Open New Exhibition: Section 14 – The Untold Story
Actor Jonathan Joss, Voice of John Redcorn, Killed in Texas Shooting
Celebrate Summer and Father’s Day at the Chickasaw Cultural Center – June 14
After 30 Years, Berkeley's Turtle Island Monument Foundation Will Be Built
Help us tell the stories that could save Native languages and food traditions
At a critical moment for Indian Country, Native News Online is embarking on our most ambitious reporting project yet: "Cultivating Culture," a three-year investigation into two forces shaping Native community survival—food sovereignty and language revitalization.
The devastating impact of COVID-19 accelerated the loss of Native elders and with them, irreplaceable cultural knowledge. Yet across tribal communities, innovative leaders are fighting back, reclaiming traditional food systems and breathing new life into Native languages. These aren't just cultural preservation efforts—they're powerful pathways to community health, healing, and resilience.
Our dedicated reporting team will spend three years documenting these stories through on-the-ground reporting in 18 tribal communities, producing over 200 in-depth stories, 18 podcast episodes, and multimedia content that amplifies Indigenous voices. We'll show policymakers, funders, and allies how cultural restoration directly impacts physical and mental wellness while celebrating successful models of sovereignty and self-determination.
This isn't corporate media parachuting into Indian Country for a quick story. This is sustained, relationship-based journalism by Native reporters who understand these communities. It's "Warrior Journalism"—fearless reporting that serves the 5.5 million readers who depend on us for news that mainstream media often ignores.
We need your help right now. While we've secured partial funding, we're still $450,000 short of our three-year budget. Our immediate goal is $25,000 this month to keep this critical work moving forward—funding reporter salaries, travel to remote communities, photography, and the deep reporting these stories deserve.
Every dollar directly supports Indigenous journalists telling Indigenous stories. Whether it's $5 or $50, your contribution ensures these vital narratives of resilience, innovation, and hope don't disappear into silence.
The stakes couldn't be higher. Native languages are being lost at an alarming rate. Food insecurity plagues many tribal communities. But solutions are emerging, and these stories need to be told.
Support independent Native journalism. Fund the stories that matter.
Levi Rickert (Potawatomi), Editor & Publisher