NORTHGLENN, Colo. — When you flip through the pages of most fashion magazines, it’s rare to see Native American models and designs. But Kelly Holmes set out to change that.
“When I first started out in fashion, I actually faced a lot of discrimination and exclusion,” Holmes said.
She’s Mnicoujou Lakota and grew up on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. By 16 years old, she was modeling in Denver.
“I remember my first photo shoot was so life-changing, and it really opened my eyes up to the world,” she said.
But at casting calls and auditions, she felt singled out.
“I was constantly told that I was too exotic-looking or too different, and I really didn't fit in,” she said.
So, she decided to create the platform she wanted to see: Native Max Magazine, a media company celebrating Indigenous fashion.
“Native people, Indigenous people in general, all across the world, we've always been fashionable,” Holmes said. “Whenever we had ceremonies or gatherings... we always dressed up and showed out. And I love that we continue that tradition today.”
Holmes’ own passion for fashion runs deep.
“At the heart, it comes from my grandma,” she said. “My grandma is a boarding school survivor, so in every way she should have forgotten our stories and our culture and our language.”
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But instead, her grandma continued to speak the Lakota language every day and used clothes as a way to express herself.
“She grew up sewing her clothes,” Holmes said. “That was a tool for her to hang on to her culture.”
Since Holmes started her fashion magazine 12 years ago, she has connected with Native designers who share a similar origin story for their love of fashion.
"Just like me, they grew up learning sewing from... the matriarchs in their family, and they're interested in keeping that on,” she said.
While Native Max started out as a print magazine, over the last decade, Holmes has grown her business into a more expansive media company with digital editions of the magazine, video series and fashion shows.
“We feature the positive storytelling of our people,” Holmes said.
It started with a focus on fashion, but expanded the spotlight to include Native American pop culture, entertainment and art.
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"The first time, when I show anyone our magazines, they are surprised, astonished because they see how modern it is and how aesthetic it looks,” she said.
Not a small feat for a small business.
At Native Max, Holmes wears many hats. She’s taught herself all of the skills needed from styling models and doing their hair and makeup to designing the layouts and marketing the brand.
But even with the challenges she has faced, she said connecting with her community keeps her going. That’s why she also uses her business to bring people together in-person for events, like a fashion show planned for Nov. 20 at Denver International Airport’s Grand Hall at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
“Native fashion continues to tell our stories, and it is also a way of cultural preservation,” she said. “Fashion represents our existence and future.”
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