UNRESERVED American Indian Fashion and Art Alliance are pleased to introduce UNRESERVED Designer Collective, the organization first annual showcase of emerging American Indian talent. The fashion installation, featuring accessory and ready-to-wear designers from varying backgrounds and tribes, will take place during New York Fashion Week at the Bryant Park Hotel Loft. Curated by Founder Gail Bruce, the designers were selected for their original and provocative approaches to fashion. Each exemplifies the creativity and commerce in American Indian culture. Likewise, the event provides a platform for expanding their vision and broadening business opportunities. In keeping with this mission, the UNRESERVED Designer Collective will kick off the Fashion Internship Program offering American Indians experience in all aspects of the fashion industry, from design to sales to marketing. Leading companies including Eileen Fisher, Daryl Kerrigan, Nanette Lepore, Pamela Love, Nicole Miller, Urban Zen by Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenberg have all agreed to sponsor one or more interns in the coming years.

Bruce explains, As we educate the next generation through internships, exposure, and exhibitions we look forward to expanding American Indian opportunities on Seventh Avenue. She continues,Likewise, UNRESERVED seeks to enlighten the industry and public about Indian culture and talent.

Maya Stewart, a London College of Fashion student and Chickasaw/Creek girl utilizes traditional Native American patterns reinterpreted in her chic, modern handbags. Patricia Michaels, a Taos Pueblo native, gives a new twist to Native tradition with her Fall 2010 ready-to-wear. Accessory designer, Kenneth Johnson, will present designs that combine metals and gems with his Seminole tribe bold stamping and engravings. Mother and son jewelers, Dylan and Veronica Poblano, merge traditional Zuni inlay techniques with vibrant techno-culture motifs, while New Mexico native, Maria Samora, of the Taos Pueblo incorporates natural geometric forms and recycled metals into her contemporary jewelry.

UNRESERVED: American Indian Fashion and Art Alliance is a non-profit organization championing American Indian talent in fashion and art, and is dedicated to empowerment, education, sustainability and the encouragement of cultural rejuvenation within American Indian communities. UNRESERVED will bring opportunity and education to over 2.5 million American Indians and Alaskan Natives from over 500 tribes living in the United States today. Its goal is to provide American Indian youth with tools that encourage artistic expression and a renewed sense of pride and identity, generate positive global awareness, and reaffirm the talent prevalent in American Indian culture.

This initiative was made possible by the generosity of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Established in 1930, the organization supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that enable vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to their societies and cultures. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. For further information please visit the Foundation website at www.wkkf.org.