Martha of Taos & the Northern Trail Velvet

Over the years, I've carried strands of tradition and continuity from collection to collection. When designing, I try to keep in mind who we are here at Double D Ranch and who you, our family of customers, are. I am constantly inspired by the world around me and the challenge is combining both traditional and pop culture and making sure Double D is under the "Who we are and who you are" umbrella while in design mode.

A strand of inspirational tradition that weaves through from year to year is fiery, passionate women. Last Spring our collection was called FREEBIRD - inspired by the style of Iris Apfel and the spirit of Frida Kahlo - two women whose fashion sense is/was as large as their fiery personalities.  Now, let me introduce another passionate woman of fashion:

Martha Reed.

In 1953 Martha moved to Taos, New Mexico and on her first day at her job at Al Thorwaldsen's Pink Horse Shop, Thorwaldsen marveled at Martha's outfit of a Navajo-style velvet top and broom skirt. Martha said she designed it all and her mom helped craft the pieces together. The owner begged her to design more and Thorwaldsen would eventually hire seamstresses so they could sell Martha's makes in the store.

From that business decision on, her name became synonymous with the broom skirt.  (In fact, I bought an original calico broom skirt from her back in the early 90s.)  She opened up her store called 'Martha of Taos' (fitting) and it quickly became nationally-known. Martha would plead with her customers to NOT wash and NOT shorten their broom skirts. She preferred them to bring the skirts back into the shop when they needed to be cleaned so she could handle them and replete every one.

. Another key piece of Martha's style was her take on traditional Navajo velvet blouses adorned with concho buttons and silver pins. For Martha, the velvet represented elegance and the silver-work added flair and strength. Historically, the government gave the Navajo people thread and fabric, but never scissors. The Navajo's were stretched in order to creatively hide the frayed edges made by the knife cuts from trimming down the fabric.  Thus all of the many tucks that we see on traditional velvet blouses. Martha honored this style of creation by doing similar handiwork with her velvets.

Many of Martha's wonderfully crafted pieces are now on display at the Taos Millicent Rogers Museum.

.  I've probably always carried a little bit of Martha with me...but you can definitely see her in the Northern Trail Velvet Shirt for this Fall.

Velvets and silver-work? Looks like an homage to Martha to me! .