Ah – Santa Fe in the Spring. I spent the weekend up in the lovely mountain town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am glad I live an hour away and can ramble up Highway 25 anytime I feel like getting that hit of cold, clean mountain air.
I have a mission when I get to Santa Fe – breakfast at Café Pasqual, check out a museum, visit Santa Fe Dry Goods and walk round the plaza. Here’s a little more about the museum trip:
Fashioning New Mexico – What We Wore to Mark Life’s Passages. This carefully curated exhibition at the New Mexico History Museum tracks the fashion worn by many of the elite families back in the day. Represented are clothes for baptisms, first communions, weddings, funerals and gala events. The clothes in the exhibition were chosen from the museum’s collection (they have been collecting for over 100 years now) and the collection is extensive. There is a wall of vintage and antique fans in one part of the exhibit that I almost drooled a puddle over!
In the press release curator Louise Stiver says “This is the first time for the Museum to focus on our collection of costumes and accessories,” she said. “A number of the items in the collection represent celebrations that occurred here in New Mexico – from weddings to going to the opera to entering military service. There’s a little bit of everything for people to see.” But, she cautions, “this is not a fashion show.” “Rather, it will focus on how people fashioned their lives. Some clothing might stand alone, while others will be part of a vignette that might include furniture, portraits, weaponry, accessories, historical documents and other props to tell the story.”
Then it was off to Santa Fe Dry Goods for my fix of designer fashion. SFDG does not disappoint when it comes to the selection of designer collections. They always have a great representation of a designer’s line and not just one-sy and two-sy’s. I spotted Issey Miyake’s pleating in blouses, tops, skirts and jackets which made for a mouth watering moment for me and then I spied Ann de Meulemeester’s avant garde, structured but unstructured, pure black jackets and had another moment! I settled for a Yohji Yamamoto silk scarf in shades of ink intarsed with leaf patterns. Just wish they could curate their collections with some style. The racks tend to be over crowded, un-merchandised and forsaken. Someone please give these gorgeous clothes the space and attention they deserve.
Then it was off to stroll around the plaza. What can I say about the central plaza of Santa Fe other than it is the nicest way to slip from the present moment into the past. One instantly visualizes the horse and buggies pulling up and watching as out climbs a forlorn woman, dust trailing her, the sunlight catching her dusty locks as she rips off her soiled bonnet, whips her head around and declares “there’s nothing here but dirt!” Too bad she didn’t have the museum to visit and Santa Fe Dry Goods to shop in!! Back then her choices (according to the museum) would have been a visit to the Governors house for tea with the Governors wife, perhaps a sassparilla in the local saloon and then a walk round the plaza. I highly suggest you make this time worn trip one day and discover the magic of this mountain town for yourself.
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