Carrie Moran McCleary is a fashion designer, artist, and Little Shell Chippewa Tribal member who lives on the Crow Reservation in Montana. In 2015, after years of designing clothes and accessories for her family, Moran McCleary founded her small business Plains Soul to share her unique style and artistry with a wider audience.
Moran McCleary is known for upcycling and Indigenizing everyday items. As the tenth of eleven children, upcycling was a way of life in her family growing up. She learned to bead and sew from her mother, discovering at a young age how to customize thrift-store finds and hand me downs, transforming them into works of art and expressions of her identity.
Through her beaded jewelry, clothing, and accessories she brings together contemporary styles and traditional designs. Moran McCleary says, “My designs are very Ojibwe, but, after spending 30 years in the Apsáalooke (Crow) community who I’m honored to call family, I’m often influenced by their colors and aesthetics as well.”
She is a 2022 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow. And relieved the Montana Indian Equity Grant the same year. Her work has been exhibited in The Brinton 101 at The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, Wyoming, When Culture Meets Fashion at the Western Heritage Center, Billings Montana, and Apsáalooke Women and Warriors at the Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois. She has also showcased her work at several juried shows including the Heard Museum Indian Art Market, the Montana Folk Festival, and the Tribal Marketplace in Yellowstone National Park.
