Diné Fashion Executive Amy Denet Deal Mentors Young Indigenous Entrepreneurs at Diné College
TSAILE, Ariz. Diné (Navajo) fashion executive Amy Denet Deal mentored young Indigenous entrepreneurs Tuesday, Nov. 10, at Diné College’s Tsaile campus. Organized by Professor Shannon C. Hooper, the event — “Auntie Office Hours,” presented by Indigenous Fashion 4Ever Futures Lab and Indigenous Futures 4Ever — welcomed Indigenous entrepreneurs 35 and under. Denet Deal also donated sewing machines to attendees.
Denet Deal, 62, founded 4KINSHIP, a sustainable artwear brand based in Santa Fe, N.M. Drawing on a 40-plus-year career, she advised attendees on goals ranging from applying to fashion school to building creative careers that serve Native communities. “I’m just here to help you understand how to reach your full potential in those categories, because it’s an amazing career to have,” she said.
Denet Deal urged Southwest states to invest in apparel manufacturing, noting that Native designers lack the facilities to bring ideas into full production. Most garments from state-funded fashion shows never move beyond a single piece. “That one piece of clothing that you saw in the fashion show might get sold, but there’s not more of that for somebody to buy,” she said. She identified repeat production as essential to building lasting wealth, adding that designers working in one-of-a-kind production often rely on other employment to support their families. She said she hoped New Mexico’s newly elected governor would expand support “not just for fashion shows, but actually to give you guys options.”
Denet Deal encouraged attendees to ground their brands in Indigenous values. “If you set up your company based on our Indigenous values of reciprocity and kinship, of taking care of each other, I guarantee you that brand will survive,” she said. 4KINSHIP models that principle — covering its costs, paying its people, and giving back consistently. That commitment led the brand to build a skate park with Tony Hawk, fund more than 10,000 skateboards for youth and provide sewing machines to emerging designers. Denet Deal envisions a circular economy in which a skateboard company funds its own giveaways. 4KINSHIP is also in talks to support weavers in nearby Two Grey Hills, a community that lost its trading post and sustained flood and monsoon damage.
Her closing message centered on collective advancement. “If you find ways to make sure you involve your whole community, it’s not just you are rising; your entire community comes up with you,” she said. “When one person survives, you need to pull everybody up with you.” She asked attendees to share what they learned with their home communities.
Raised by an adoptive family in Indiana, Denet Deal studied on the East Coast and built her career across Boston, Connecticut, Germany, Asia, and Europe with PUMA. After two decades in the Los Angeles area, where she refined small-batch, sustainable production, she returned to her homelands in New Mexico in 2019. “After 40-plus years in the industry, I can reinvest in us,” she said. “That’s the reciprocity.”
“I am very thrilled that Amy Denet Deal was a guest speaker for this afternoon’s artist talk. Over fifty students and community members attended. This is an amazing opportunity for the students to meet an international Dine artist who is successful in the Art and Fashion industry. The students are inspired.
We look forward to working with Amy to build a successful partnership with 4KINSHIP and the Art of Humanities at Dine College. I am extremely grateful for Amy, and for the wonderful work she is doing for Indigenous communities throughout the nation. Special thanks to Amy Denet Deal for providing sewing machines as positive incentives for Dine College for fine art students.” — Professor Shannon C. Hooper.
4KINSHIP, founded by enrolled Navajo Nation member Amy Denet Deal, creates one-of-a-kind, restored, repurposed, and upcycled artwear. Proceeds support projects that benefit the Navajo community.
About the School of Arts and Humanities at Diné College
The School of Arts and Humanities at Diné College provides a rigorous visual arts curriculum grounded in the Diné Educational Philosophy. Its Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, offered full-time at the Tsaile Campus, integrates Diné culture with artistic excellence across six specializations, preparing students to pursue independent careers or advanced study while residing on the Diné Nation. For more information, visit www.dinecollege.edu.
