Lily Gladstone’s Oscars gown featured work by Indigenous artists

The Oscars have come and gone for another year, but let’s take one last look: at best actres s nominee Lily Gladstone and her glorious red carpet gown.

Gladstone, whose tribal affiliation is Siksikaitsitapi/Nimíipuu and who is a 2004 graduate of Mountlake Terrace High School in Washington state, paid tribute to her heritage in a midnight-blue velvet gown designed in collaboration by Gucci creative director Sabato De Sarno and Indigenous artist Joe Big Mountain.

The gown’s cape is hand-beaded in traditional quillwork, executed by a team of Indigenous artists on Wisconsin’s Oneida reservation who created 216 individual petals. Gladstone, who was the first Native American ever nominated in her category, said that she had long planned to include Indigenous participation in her Oscars ensemble.

“Because like the nomination itself,” she said in an interview with Vogue magazine, “it’s historic, and meant to be a shared moment by Natives everywhere.”

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