Pop-up store at The Museum Broken Arrow features Native ‘wearable art’

Written By: John Dobberstein

(BROKEN ARROW, Okla.) The Museum Broken Arrow is expanding into the world of pop-up stores, as members of the Native Fashion Arts Collective recently spent 3 days installing their latest pop-up store in Broken Arrow at the museum.

Read this story on the Broken Arrow Sentinel here. 

Jessica Moore Harjo, Otoe-Missouria/Osage/Pawnee/Sac & Fox, and Veronica Pipestem, Osage/Otoe-Missouria/Potawatomie, are two principals of the Arts Collective and worked to create a display of indigenous handmade merchandise.

Wearable art is their specialty and their indigenous designs are considered to be traditional and non-traditional. The retail operation of Arts Collective does business as INDIGICHIC (pronounced IN-DIGI-SHEEK).

The INDIGICHIC store will be at the Museum Broken Arrow through July. It’s the second time the Arts Collective has opened a pop up a temporary store in the Tulsa-Broken Arrow area.

Museum officials said they’re excited to feature the INDIGICHIC clothing, accessories and hair and skin care products in the pop-up store and in the museum gift shop. Pipestem said one product, Zona Navajo Infused Hair Oil, “always sells out due to its popularity.” Other bath and body products are available at the store as well.

Harjo and Pipestem, along with Wilson Pipestem and Alex Ponca Stock, founded and curate the INDIGICHIC collection, but there are far more artists in the group already mentioned. There are more than 30 contributing artists that normally conduct their sales out of booths at art markets or in online stores.

Their dream of having retail space in a store setting came true and was very successful for them over the 2023 holiday season in their first attempt at a pop up, so they were ready to try it again, the museum said.

At first, Harjo and Pipestem thought they would fill only one third of the Barbara Brown Kimbrough Gallery at the museum. They soon decided they could do better and have now completely filled the 900-square-foot space, plus a quarter of the museum’s gift shop.

Pipestem said that new merchandise would be added weekly to the store so visitors are invited to return multiple times. Their merchandise ranges from high-end runway styles to everyday shirts and pants and dresses, and even tee shirts. Added to the mix are accessories to complete a look, such as earrings, necklaces, bead trimmed bracelets and scarves.

The designers and artists have multiple talents. For example, Harjo, who markets her creations under Weomepe Designs, has a Ph.D. in design and designs her own fabrics to use in creating garments that are then complemented by her lengthy earrings and jackets.

An occasional use of detail like ribbon work adds interest. She currently has art on display at the Oklahoma State Capitol, the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City and the Tulsa Art Alley, as well as the Osage Nation Museum and casinos.

Alex Ponca Stock’s beaded works on wool and broadcloth, from earrings to bracelets and hats, reflect a painterly consideration of line and color, apropos of Ponca Stock’s educational background in classical oil painting. Pipestem produces a large variety of embellished earrings of tremendous variety in her collection. She calls her line Itsimi Vee Creations.

Museum officials said the merchandise all has a highly creative design that is definitely “post-traditional” indigenous in style, and the result is a trendy, chic style that is unique.

However, there is also a strong presence of traditional indigenous motifs expressed in shapes, colors, and animals that convey the artists’ knowledge and appreciation of the culture of their ancestors, adds museum officials. The cultural motifs and artistry present in indigenous design, such as ribbon work, leather, and beads, are expressed on silks and other fabrics used to create shirts, pants, jackets, skirts and more for both men and women. It is an exciting style that has wide appeal.

There will be a featured artist for each of the three months the pop up is open in Broken Arrow.

For May, that artist is Wendy Ponca, Osage fine artist who is skilled in theatre costume design and fashion creations. A former fiber arts instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, she also taught at the University of Las Vegas. She creates silk screened lengths of cloth, painted canvas, embellished leather (multiple textures) for her designs.

Sometimes Ponca creates a completed garment, and other times she creates a yardage of fabric that the buyer can use or wear in multiple ways – or Ponca can create a garment from it.

The fashion purpose is open ended, and the buyer can participate in the creation process by deciding how to utilize the fabric. Ponca is also skilled at beadwork, ribbon work, and incorporates shells and bone and more into her work. She has also designed Pendleton blankets and is a retired fine arts instructor.

Two more artists will be featured as artists of the month in June and July. More coverage will be available through tribal newspapers, the Native Fashion Arts Collective, INDIGICHIC.com, Facebook and Instagram pages for INDIGICHIC, and on The Museum Broken Arrow website and Facebook and Instagram pages for the museum.

Other artists who have INDIGICHIC-acquired pieces in this pop-up include Hilary Ashmore, Navajo; Jaylee Lowe, Seminole/Mvskoke; Hud Oberly, Osage/Caddo/Comanche; Mary Hammer, Cheyenne & Arapaho/Latina/Osage; Kenneth Johnson, Mvskoke/Seminole; Kristin Gentry, Choctaw; and Leslie Deer, Mvskoke. Also available is INDIGICHIC special edition coffee by Osage-owned Ekowah Coffee.

The Museum Broken Arrow, 400 S. Main St., is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursday from 4-8 p.m.; and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.