Native Couture
A History of Santa Fe Style

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
Dec 16, 2007 through Apr 21, 2009


Santa Fe style represents a state of mind held by those who live in this town either as full-time or part-time residents. Santa Fe style influenced fashion and design worldwide. It is not just jewelry and clothing but a feeling inside, a sense of place and that total belief in the Navajo saying, “Walk in beauty.”

The spirit of Santa Fe style has inspired an exhibit with the same name at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Native Couture opens December 16, 2007 and runs through September 1, 2008. Drawing from the museum’s incomparable collections, this exhibition showcases both old and new jewelry – 1880 to the present. The exhibition will explore the history of Santa Fe style and what it incorporates.

The focus of Native Couture revolves around the Dicky Pfaelzer Jewelry Collection donated to the museum by her children in 2005. Dicky, a style-setter, was known throughout town for creating a statement with her beautiful jewelry and exquisite clothing and a fixture on the Santa Fe gallery scene for more than eighteen years. (She also drove a station wagon painted with lizards and other Southwest iconography)


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