Jontay Kahm is a Plains Cree fashion designer from Mosquito First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2016, he earned a fashion design diploma from Blanche Macdonald Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, before attending Marist College's fashion degree program from 2018 until the pandemic interrupted his studies in 2020. He went on to complete his senior collection at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, graduating with a BFA in Studio Arts in 2023. In May 2025, Kahm made history as the first First Nations graduate of the MFA Fashion Design and Society program at Parsons School of Design in New York City — attending on a full-ride scholarship.
Kahm's relationship with SWAIA has been a defining arc of his career. In 2023, he debuted his first full collection, Regalian Bodies, on the SWAIA Indigenous Fashion Show runway at Santa Fe Indian Market — his first time seeing his garments worn in motion. The collection was a deeply personal reckoning with grief, conceived as a way to process the passing of his father, IAIA alumnus and painter Jeff Kahm (Plains Cree, 1968–2021), whose love of abstract art and vibrant color lives on in Jontay's work. Drawing from powwow regalia — feather bustles, ribbon skirts transformed into sculptural gowns, elaborate fringe and featherwork — Regalian Bodies announced Kahm as one of the most electrifying voices in Indigenous fashion. The collection earned coverage in Vogue, WWD, and Smithsonian Magazine, and prompted Parsons to recruit him directly into their MFA program.
He returned to the SWAIA runway in 2024 with his sophomore collection, Ethereal Realms — a vision of "planes that visually describe when tangible bodies transform into transparent heavenly apparitions," as Kahm described it. Blending biblically accurate angels with classic Americana silhouettes, beaded crosses with ceremonial regalia construction techniques, and couture scale with deep spiritual intention, the collection closed the show and drew some of the loudest cheers of the evening. Built almost entirely in two weeks by an all-Indigenous team, the final beaded gown was completed minutes before hitting the runway.
Throughout both collections, Kahm has drawn on his Cree upbringing — learning traditional regalia-making rooted in powwow dance — while channeling the theatricality of Alexander McQueen, Iris van Herpen, and John Galliano. His work sits at the intersection of ceremony and spectacle, ancient couture and the avant-garde. Notable clients include Lily Gladstone and Cara Jade Myers, both of whom have worn his pieces on red carpets. Kahm received the Best Emerging Fashion Designer of the Year award at the 2024 Creative Arts and Fashion Awards (CAFA) in Toronto and was a finalist for the CFDA graduate award the same year. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at IAIA.
"I want to create the unimaginable and dream the unthinkable," Kahm has said. "I believe the gift I have is from God, and I feel it's urgent for me to share it with the world."
