At Forces of Fashion the Message From Daniel Roseberry, Quannah Chasinghorse, Xiye Bastida, and Christopher John Rogers Is Be True to Your Beliefs

Next up was model and land protector Quannah Chasinghorse and climate justice activist and co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative, Xiye Bastida, who spoke to Vogue’s global network lead & U.S. deputy editor, Taylor Antrim, about indigenous culture, representation, and the environment. Both believe they can best change the system while working within it. Regarding representation, Chasinghorse spoke about challenging expectations while making her presence, values and expectations known. “There’s a stereotypical box that none of us fit in,” she said. As “someone that’s one of the first [indigenous models] to really enter space,” Chasinghorse said she wants to “be a storyteller for our people because that’s so important within our community.”

For her part, Bastida believes that indigenous values, like those of reciprocity, intergenerational collaboration, and guardianship of nature and life, can be universally shared, and lead the way toward a better, greener future. She said that her parents, who met at a climate summit, always told her, “‘You have the ability to change the world if you want to.’ I think that’s something that we don’t hear enough, and all of us should hear that from somebody,” she reflected. “So I’ll tell you: You can change the world if you want to.”

The third session featured Christopher John Rogers, the award winning fashion designer—whose work was worn by many attendees—who spoke about world building with fellow SCAD graduate, Vogue Runway’s José Criales-Unzueta, fashion news writer. Rogers has a strong vision, with room for perfect imperfections. He’s intrigued by “the idea of happenstance,” and is more likely to find inspiration in a take-out bag than 18th-century costume. Of his famed love for color, the designer said, “there’s just something really emotional about it, and for me it’s not so much about needing to be loud, it’s about the specificity within you.”

For more, visit the Forces of Fashion website.