Designer Patricia Michaels uses hand-painted silk feathers or meshed leather to create textiles and transform them into contemporary fashion.
Growing up in New Mexico, nature and the southwest landscape have influenced her work. Her inspiration comes from her Native American culture and time-honored traditions. Preparing blue corn Piki bread and watching a spider spin a web are just a few ways she learned to work with her hands, hone her technique, and find inspiration.
In her newest collection, she collects desert flowers for her clothing. She says, “I will leave my studio and just explore and collect and be a part of and appreciate the beauty of the desert mountain.”
The Native designer works from her Taos Pueblo studio and has created fashion week Haute Couture, ready-to-wear garments, and jewelry.
“As a little child, I participated in ceremonies and other cultures and powwows. So, having that big diversity of knowledge and experience allowed me to express myself as a contemporary designer, giving clients something new and exciting to wear,” says Michaels.
Michaels got her start in fashion right out of high school. She worked in the costume department at the Santa Fe Opera. She attended the Institute of American Indian Arts for three years and the Chicago Art Institute.
“It was at Chicago Art Institute when Nick Cave was my instructor that really pushed me into being my individual voice by way of creating textiles that were not available with Native American imagery. That started my hand painted textile career. I experimented with embellishments, distressing, different techniques, and textures.” Her textiles are inspired by nature and experiencing other cultures.
In 2012, she participated in “Project Runway” and won the first runner-up title. Michaels’ debut was a first for a Native American designer. She was also the first Native American designer to have a collection for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. Her 2013 Fall/Winter Collection received rave reviews.
In 2023, Michaels dressed actress Tantoo Cardinal for the Cannes Film Festival premiere of the movie “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Michaels received the Living Treasure Award from MIAC (Museum of Indian Arts and Culture) for 2024. The award honors Native American artists who contribute to the arts and Indigenous culture. The exhibit “Painted by Hand: The Textiles of Patricia Michaels” will be on display in Santa Fe at MIAC until April 2025.
Michaels will also participate in the Indian Market Show in Santa Fe on August 17th and 18th.
This year, her show consists of hand-painted textiles, silks, and woven textiles. She incorporates playful elements like flower dresses, paper doll dresses, paper bread dresses, and pants and shirts for men. Each of her designs tells a story.
She says the paper doll dresses represent the playfulness and nature of Native American Culture. “I like to build upon its strength and its whimsical relationships that we have in our journeys to being in our cultures.”
Baskets are often used in Native American ceremonies. Michaels says, “The basket weaves that I have in this collection are important to me because, without the basket, we don’t receive our blessings. The baskets are where we hold a lot of our strength in our truth, and that is through sharing and inviting people into our prayers. Prayer is never just about oneself but about all living matter.”
Since she started in fashion 40 years ago, progress has been made. She says, “I can produce digital work so that they don’t have to produce by the hundreds or thousands. You can have ready-to-wear collections where it’s just one or ten of and it can be re-ordered. There’s such a huge amount of opportunity now from 40 years ago.”
Michaels is looking forward to her legacy the most. She works with her son and daughter, who are also artists. Michaels proudly collaborates with her daughter on digital design. Her son helps with the music for the fashion shows and handles her social media.
“He’s a talented musician, writer, and also does film, color grading, and all kinds of wonderful things.” Michaels says, “All of this is a huge blessing because bringing your children into your world of artistry and having that connection isn't something that everybody gets to have in their lives so that’s a huge blessing.”
Now, Michaels is busy working on new collections for upcoming shows. She says,” There will be fun, new, exciting projects for dance and film projects too.”
Michaels says, “The best advice I can give to native designers is to allow their true strength of who they are and what they feel deep down inside as a Native American today. Pay attention to the materials that they use- allow the silhouette to become part of that language. Explore different fabrications and materials, and never give the same repetitive look. Make it new and exciting every single time so the opportunity to show on the stage allows their true voice and their vision to become a reality. Have fun with it.”
Visit www.patricia-michaels.com for more information.
The amount of resources that I get to create from is exciting.