A desire to raise awareness on important issues prompted a Santa Fe designer to create a fashion line that will be featured on the red carpet.

Dante Biss-Grayson, a Native American from the Osage tribe, will have 60 designs featured during a fashion show Aug. 19 and 20 in Santa Fe, according to an Aug. 15 KOB 4 report. Biss-Grayson’s passion for fashion and art first began as a source of therapy following his service in the military.

“I found out about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis at the same time and I started looking at just different issues that are out there,” he told KOB 4. “I just wanted to use the tools that I had, as far as creating and sharing and empowering people.”

Biss-Grayson operates the Sky Eagle Collection fashion house. Its primary goal is to bring attention to often-neglected issues and communities. According to KOB 4, he felt he had to do something and decided to use his Native-American-inspired designs.

Biss-Grayson’s designs center on what he called the “cultural appropriation in different symbols and headdresses and patterns.” His aim is to educate the public, so different cultures can stand “shoulder-to-shoulder” and support each other, KOB 4 reported. 

“That’s the idea,” he said to KOB 4. “It’s going out there, educating and showing people how it’s done.”