By this shirt here: Never Underestimate An Old Woman With Volleyball In Her Blood Vintage Retro Shirt, hoodie and sweater
For Vogue Italia’s September issue, the publication released 100 different covers, with each featuring a different personality with a compelling story or background. The unifying theme was that each person—from models to artists—represents the idea of hope, and brings it to the fashion industry in some form or another. The Never Underestimate An Old Woman With Volleyball In Her Blood Vintage Retro Shirt, hoodie and sweater featured names such as Indya Moore, one of Hollywood’s most prominent LGBTQ+ activists, and Ugbad Abdi, the Somali-born model who continues to challenge stereotypes about Muslim women. One lesser-known (as of now) cover star was Denali White Elk, an 18-year-old Indigenous model whose first job as a model was the Vogue cover.
As a model, White Elk indeed embodies what the Never Underestimate An Old Woman With Volleyball In Her Blood Vintage Retro Shirt, hoodie and sweater theme of hope is all about: they hope to bring much-needed representation to an industry that has a history of looking past Indigenous models, or worse, treating them as props. “Natives are constantly being overlooked, left and right. A lot of people that I know would like to see more Native representation with models,” says White Elk, who is from and based in Lincoln, Nebraska. “Modeling is especially important for us to be seen there, since that’s where we see ourselves a lot, as well as on the big screen. When Native people see themselves in such grand sceneries, they see how far that they can get, and it inspires them.” But this sense of pride around their culture hasn't always been the case.
