HERITAGE-WEAR

Jennie Montana has designed unique fashions using bison since 2006. Seeing the potential to blend bison fiber into yarn, she started her work with the fibers of locally ranched bison, alpaca, and sheep. Gathering the raw materials, she worked with mills to create luxurious blends for knitting and knitwear. Next, she was taking orders for mittens, hats, and custom sweaters! Handling the bison hides from ranch pick up, to stretching and shearing, she taught herself how to select the best pieces to tan and trim her one-of-a-kind appliquéd coats, capes, and fashions featuring Montana wildlife from birds of prey to wildflowers. Jennie Montana's designs are owned by collectors throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

JENNIE MONTANA

Fashion Designer

Raised in Southern California, the great-granddaughter of early Montana settlers, Jennifer returned to Montana in 1981, and embraced life in big sky country. A fly-fishing guide, writer, conservationist, and speaker for over 30 years, she kept her affection for the fiber arts on hold until it couldn't be contained. In 2004, her Swedish mother-in-law, Eva, taught her to knit, and it was game on! She jokingly says, “I guess anything to do with sticks and string gets my attention.” She found the process of creating yarn from raw fiber fascinating, from shearing, to carding, to milling, and it had her ask, “What about bison? Do they have anything to knit with?” After research, study, and asking a lot of questions, she approached a rancher with bison, and one day he generously dropped a raw, newly harvested hide, onto her driveway. From there she taught herself how to stretch hides, shear the fiber, and make yarn from bison. She began Montana Sweater Co. in 2006, and changed the name to Montana Bison Fashion in 2016.

"Handling the raw materials from the beginning is actually essential. There isn’t a store you can walk into and shop for bison trim or fiber.

I am one of the few people in the US that uses bison in fashion this way. I embrace the entire process. I chose to work with bison because it speaks to the heart of what it means to live in this part of the West.

This is the creature that provided warmth, clothing, tools, and food for thousands of years to indigenous people. It sustained life. It wasn’t that long ago that we almost lost the bison to extinction. Today, ranching, harvesting, and protecting the bison has brought its population up from barely 300 (in 1885), to over 500,000 today in North America. This is our national mammal. It is an animal representing resilience, strength, and power. I encourage everyone to wear bison because without our interest in bringing it back to roam the prairies and to be ranched as a source of food, we would have lost it entirely."

— Jennie Montana

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Jennie Montana is an award-winning, publication-featured, and an active Montana and ranch organization member.