Dorothy Grant : An Endless Thread

Part look-book, part memoir, and part history, this beautifully illustrated monument to a singular designer who helped inspire the growing Indigenous fashion movement is also a powerful demonstration of the enduring resonance and possibilities of Haida art. Inspired by a discussion with celebrated Haida artist Bill Reid, Haida designer Dorothy Grant made it her life’s mission to bring her culture’s traditional art into contemporary fashion while adhering to the principle of Yaguudang, or respect for oneself and others.

The 1989 launch of her Feastwear collection, featuring modern silhouettes hand-appliquéd with Northwest Coast formline, immediately established her at the forefront of Indigenous fashion in North America, and she has since hosted runway shows and trunk sales from Paris to Vancouver to Tokyo.

Her clients include Indigenous leaders, national politicians, and global celebrities, and her garments can be found in museums and galleries around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dorothy Grant: An Endless Thread is the first monograph to celebrate her trailblazing career.

It features new photography of dozens of garments spanning the past four decades, modeled in studio and natural settings in Vancouver and Haida Gwaii, alongside sketches, traditional button robes and spruce-root weaving, and personal stories and reflections from Grant.

Essays by Haida repatriation specialist and museologist Sdahl K_’awaas Lucy Bell and curator India Rael Young place Grant in the long continuum of Haida fashion and trace the many innovations and accomplishments of her journey, and Haida curator and artist Kwiaahwah Jones, a longtime assistant to Grant, shares behind-the-scenes insights and memories.

An associated exhibition, Dorothy Grant: Retrospect, opens at Haida Gwaii Museum in spring 2024.