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Rekindling the Passion for Santa Fe Style Fashion
By Aysha Griffin 
 

Cover photo - Aysha Griffin and beloved companion Simone

The turn of a decade and birthdays ending in 0 or 5, seem to evoke reflection and consideration of new beginnings. In my case, both 2010 and a birthday of double pentangles arrived at the same time, along with having achieved a long-time weight-loss goal that necessitated revamping my wardrobe to a size smaller. Not a problem, you say. But in trying on every one of nearly 100 pieces of clothing hanging in my closet, I realized that many stylish outfits had not been worn in years, or ever, and I began to wonder why I had become so enamored of a pair of jeans and a few tops; why I had become so lazy, so limited in my daily choices of what to wear? Blame it on Paris.

For several years before moving to Santa Fe in 2000, my partner David and I would drive five hours each way from Colorado Springs to spend long weekends at various B&Bs in Santa Fe. By day we’d wander galleries or festivals, hang out in bookstores and coffeehouses and at night lounge in restaurants listening to local music, marveling at the ambiance created by plastered thick-walled adobes embellished with original art and crafts, and permeated with the distinctive sweet scent of burned piñon wood.

We romanced the Santa Fe experience through our clothing. I wore long flowing skirts – velvet in winter, colorful cotton in summer, complemented by embroidered shirts and jackets of silk, cotton or wool imported from Mexico, India, Guatemala, a pair of comfortable Tony Lama boots I’d bought on our first trip at Double Take (a consignment store in Santa Fe’s Guadalupe District) in 1996, and adorned myself with turquoise and silver bracelets, earrings and pendants.

David traded Pocket-Ts for collared shirts to display a bolo tie from his burgeoning collection, and threaded through the loops of his blue jeans the handcrafted silver-buckled belt reserved for our trips to New Mexico. “If we ever move here,” he declared, “I’m going to be Santa Fe Dave!” And we laughed at the unlikelihood of ever moving to Santa Fe.

Walking around the Plaza, feeling “very Santa Fe,” we’d listen to a one-man band,  Peruvian flute players, a salsa concert; look in shop windows, admiring and critiquing the quality of jewelry, baskets, sculptures, clothing; and stroll slowly past the Native artisans whose Pueblo ancestors had been selling their crafts under the portal of the Inn of the Governors for some 200 years, occasionally buying a piece to add to our wardrobes.

Proudly decked out in our Santa Fe style finery we’d sit on a park bench pretending we were locals, munching tasty tamales or fajitas from the blue and pink cart at the corner of San Francisco Street, and muse, “Do you think it would be as fun to live here as it is to visit?”

It was a rhetorical question, knowing the indulgence of our Santa Fe fantasy was limited to our costumes and the weekend vacations we could afford.

Bags in Santa Fe Style from Spirit of the Earth.  Photos by Aysha Griffin

Fashions from Spirit of the Earth - Santa Fe

But even back in Colorado, I often dressed up in flowing skirts, cowgirl boots and turquoise jewelry to stoke my connection to the magical, almost mythical, place. I enjoyed a certain smugness in flaunting my affinity to the quirky individualized stylishness that represented for me Santa Fe’s diverse cultural influences and challenged perceptions. My inner Bohemian had found expression – not as just some aging hippie, but as one attuned to a profound regional identity known as “Santa Fe style”.

This is where Paris, France enters the story of my degenerate clothing habits. In December 1999, I won a trip there. It was David’s first time to Europe and, as an architectural designer and builder of sustainable homes, he was smitten by the history and beauty of the City of Lights. On our return, as the plane descended into the expanse of post-WWII tract housing of Colorado Springs, he turned to me and asked, “Can’t we live some place more architecturally interesting?”

Within months, through a series of serendipitous events, we moved to our revered Santa Fe. There is a popular saying that “Santa Fe either embraces you or spits you out,” and we were clearly embraced. Within weeks we purchased a lot in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and designed and built a Southwest Style home with foot-thick stuccoed walls made of energy-efficient Insulated Concrete Forms and incorporated nearly every detail from the lexicon of Santa Fe style homes: hand-troweled plaster, nichos, bancos, kivas, vigas, portals, canales, walled courtyards, wooden gates and coyote fencing,

We moved in, created a business and before long our Santa Fe style wardrobes began gathering dust in the recesses of the closet. We clothed ourselves in the fashion-less uninspired comfort of most locals; of Americans everywhere except, perhaps, the major urban centers where haute couture could still be found.

But the irony is that we, like all transplants, were drawn to Santa Fe because of its unique style: its art and architecture, its tolerant and progressive attitudes, its celebration of individual expression… and here we were unadorned in scruffy jeans, bland shirts and tennis shoes, as if living in Anywhere USA. To further aggravate the observation and mitigate excuses, Santa Fe style dress is comfortable and easy, unlike the panty hose, high heels and tight-fitting attire of women’s big city fashions.

Black jeans and plain black tops became my daily uniform; the occasional scarf my only accessory. I stopped choosing jewelry; wearing the same gold necklace and small gold hoop earrings for years. What, I wondered, caused this ignorance of style, this laxity and slovenliness?

My recent closet overhaul, trying on every piece of clothing for size, revealed many beautifully crafted outfits, which now needed to be donated or sold. The variety of texture, colors and cuts of cloth, the quality of hand-woven, hand-painted, hand-dyed craftsmanship, and the memories of each purchase made me realize the treasures I had so blithely abandoned.

Norma Sharon (left), Santa Fe. Hand-painted silks by Louise Blumberg. Available exclusively at Norma Sharon

Hand-molded cowhide 'Persona Purses' by D.L. Einbender Available exclusively at Norma Sharon

Why had my delight in turquoise and silver tarnished? Why had I let the appeal of apparel evaporate in the high desert aridity? Was it simply an overdose of cliché –squash blossoms and massive bracelets, hand-painted silk and artsy flowing layers –that made me careless?

No, I had simply taken for granted what I loved. I had lost the thread of connection to my personal colorful style and the joy of living in the uncommon light and distinctive beauty of Santa Fe.

While familiarity can breed contempt, appreciation can cultivate delight. I resolved to use this opportunity to restock my wardrobe with graceful expressions of my creative self and dress in style befitting a woman celebrating her life.

This is no small challenge. It means reimagining who I want to be, the messages I want to convey, balanced with the attention and effort I am willing to give to adorn myself each day in clothing and jewelry that thrill me. 

Santa Fe style isn’t about conformity, although preserving and honoring the past is integral to stretching with continuity into the future. It’s about extolling individual creativity, examining myths and archetypes, healing our selves and the planet, living with greater awareness.

The dream worker wears only black and white, the foreign trader dresses exclusively in ethic clothes from the Middle East, the lavender seller is seen only in purple garb. It is a form of branding, identifying whom one wants to project into the world and, hopefully, who one is at her core.

In this new decade, this new year of life, a bold sense of one’s own strengths and intentions is indeed something to celebrate with style! 

Norma Sharon, Unique Custom Apparel

www.normasharon.com

Spirit of the Earth

Fine women's clothing and gems in 18kt. gold by Tony Malmed, handmade in Santa Fe since 1982

108 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Tel: (505) 988-9558
www.SpiritoftheEarth.com

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