Three weeks of prep is not long for a feature film, but that is the amount of time Erica Tremblay’s “Fancy Dance” had before shooting. The film follows a Native woman named Jax (Lily Gladstone) who must balance caring for her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) with trying to find her missing sister/Roki’s mother Tawi (Hauli Sioux Gray) and surviving the meddling influences that might tear the family apart. It takes place on the fragile edges of Late Stage Capitalism, gas stations and creek beds, Walmart parking lots and staged houses for lease. No one in the film, frankly, has the time to shop for clothes.

Nonetheless, costume designer Amy Higdon needed to craft looks that tell us what’s important to these characters and who they’re trying to be to each other. And she needed to do it fast. The costume team had only two chances...