BILLINGS - Fashion designer Bethany Yellowtail, born in Wyola and raised on the Crow Reservation, is taking her bold Native-inspired style to a national stage through a collaboration with one of America’s most iconic workwear brands.
Yellowtail, founder of B. Yellowtail, has built a career blending vibrant colors, Indigenous motifs, and cultural storytelling into modern fashion.
See Bethany Yellowtail's designs below:
Her work has been embraced by celebrities, dignitaries and tribal leaders alike.
“My name is Bethany Yellowtail. I am a designer from Wyola, Montana, and I was raised in the Mighty Few District of the Crow Reservation,” she said. “My dad is who really pushed me to become a designer.”
That upbringing, paired with her years studying and working in the fashion industry in Los Angeles, eventually caught the eye of Carhartt.
“They reached out to me and said they’d seen my work,” Yellowtail said. “They made space for people to get to know my story first.”
Carhartt tapped Yellowtail to design the 50th anniversary edition of its Active Jac, one of the company’s most recognizable jackets.
“It’s such an iconic jacket, too,” she said.
Yellowtail launched B. Yellowtail in 2015, introducing Indigenous motifs to a wider audience.
“I was probably the only Native person I met living for many years in LA, especially in the industry,” she said. “And so, I think design is a really beautiful way to start culture sharing.”
Yellowtail draws deeply from her homelands, family, and traditions for inspiration.
“The designs we wear, they can invoke power and protection over us. That’s what they have always been used for,” she said. “So no matter where people come from, no matter what community they were raised in, if this jacket speaks to them—even if it’s just because it’s cool—that’s awesome too. But I want them to think about our connections and relationships to one another, and the designs they were intended for them to.”
The collaboration, she says, represents shared values.
“We all go through life’s peaks and valleys, and I wanted that design to represent that, and that it would also offer protection for them,” Yellowtail said.
Now based in Billings, Yellowtail has taken her business home, overseeing an expansive warehouse where orders are processed locally and shipped worldwide.
“I really take my time to create things that are really intentional,” she said. “That’s the way we think about our traditional wear, our regalia. So I want to create things that are only special.”
Carhartt has also announced a $50,000 donation to the Wyola Development Fund, a nonprofit in Yellowtail’s home community that supports the well-being of residents in the Wyola Mighty Few District.
The Carhartt x Bethany Yellowtail collection launches in October.
