Weaving traditions: Ralph Lauren's indigenous collaboration with Diné textile artist Naiomi Glasses

Naiomi Glasses is sitting in her sunlit home on Dinétah—the Navajo Nation—in northeast Arizona, adorned with striking silver and turquoise jewellery, including a centrepiece necklace styled ever so coolly beneath the popped collar of a classic black Polo shirt. A seventh-generation Indigenous artist skilled in the Diné tradition of weaving, Glasses also happens to be a model, designer, and skateboarder. In the past few years, she has amassed a social media following and become widely recognised for her efforts to expand the reach and visibility of indigenous art. This mission is another reason she is so excited to have launched her own capsule collection in collaboration with Ralph Lauren that, in her words, “celebrates the Diné land, people, and culture.”

Glasses is the first collaborator to partner with Ralph Lauren for its new Artist in Residence program, which is an initiative that celebrates heritage craft by inviting artisans to work directly with the brand’s design team on one-off collections. The goal is to provide a long-term opportunity for independent craftspeople. The Polo Ralph Lauren x Naiomi Glasses collection includes menswear and womenswear and be released in three drops, that started in December. Each of the seasonal launches features ready-to-wear and accessories designed in tandem with Glasses. The first offering includes pieces like a sweaterdress, knit turtlenecks, and a woven jacket and blanket wrap and features a palette of brown, ivory, and crimson, as well as wedge-weave zigzags, Saltillo diamonds, and four-directions, cross motifs inspired by designs found in traditional Diné patterns and in her own work. Every detail, whether it’s natural dyes, organic materials, or colourways, is an extension of Glasses and her art as a weaver.

“All the designs are very personal to me,” Glasses explains. She notes that her family’s textile weaving goes back to the 1860s, when “Navajos were forcibly removed from our lands and forced to march to Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. It was there that my grandmother’s great-great-grandmother learned how to weave.” This artisanship has remained with Glasses’s family, and to be able to carry on the tradition, especially through such a major fashion partnership, means everything to her. “Growing up, my mom used to dress me in Ralph Lauren,” she says. “I am so incredibly honoured to be the first person to work with them in this residency program.”

Glasses also felt grateful that the team integrated her into every step of the process. “They truly took me in as a person who was designing for them,” she says. “It was very inclusive. It really was a creative-director role.” She also worked on the launch campaign, which features indigenous creatives both behind and in front of the camera. Glasses hopes that it will open the doors for other indigenous people as well as inspire those who buy the collection. “While these designs are completely rooted in designs that I would do,” she says, “I also want to see how people interpret them.”

Glasses emphasises that working on this project felt like a fantasy for the kid who used to visit the Ralph Lauren store with her family at the Biltmore Mall in Phoenix to ogle the clothes and the cases of jewellery. “They had all of this beautiful vintage Navajo jewellery, and I would see it and be like, ‘Oh, my God, one day I would love to be able to curate these pieces’. ” Glasses smiles at the fact that her life has come so perfectly full circle. “It’s so beautiful to know that I had those dreams and now those dreams are coming true.”

Feature Image: @naiomiglasses/Instagram

Images: Instagram