Patricia Michaels is a traditional native woman who is a style-maker at the forefront of modern fashion design and aesthetics. She creates boldly hip designs with a quality of timeless elegance by blending her heritage with the inspiration she draws from the ever changing world around her.

Patricia came into the world on the same day that her mother danced in a buckskin dress at the opening of her new gallery in down-town Santa Fe. After performing in the heavy beaded garment she promptly went into labor. As a child, Patricia remembers playing among giant stacks of Navajo rugs in the backroom of that gallery. This was the first contact she had with richness of Native American textiles.

Later, Patricia was drawn to the world of fashion design and studied at the Institute of American Indian Art and the Chicago Art Institute. She has lived and worked in New York and Italy. As an up and coming designer,she understands that tradition and modernity combine to move forward the dynamic and creative cultures of native peoples (and in fact all cultures). This is the vision that Patricia has carried with her throughout her career, and it clearly shows in her work.

Of her creative process Patricia says, “I don’t own traditional culture. I am just fortunate to participate. The pure enjoyment and love I feel through this participation, and my many travels create the form, the shapes, cuts, textures and imagery of my designs.”

Patricia’s commitment to both fashion and heritage has manifested itself over the course of her career. She has worked with the Kellogg Foundation on a cultural and economic exchange project to promote Native American and South African fashion designers and artists. In August 2005 she, along with other Native and African designers, participated in an international cultural fashion show during Santa Fe’s annual Indian Market. November 2006 found Patricia in Toronto, Canada where she was a featured designer in a show celebrating The Aboriginal Awards Festival. In July 2007 she once again collaborated with South African Designers, this time traveling to Johannesburg, where she served as the assistant director for the second cultural exchange show in the Kellogg sponsored project. Patricia will be showcased during Fall Fashion Week NYC, September 2009, in an unprecedented fashion event sponsored by The Native American Indian College Fund.

Patricia lives and works in Taos, New Mexico where, in her studio, she produces: custom tailored avant-garde fashions, high-end limited edition apparel, and ready- to-wear lines for men and women—as well as surface designs, including fabric for interiors. For more on fashion by Patricia Michaels visit www.pmwaterlily.com

Jewelry by Leah Shenandoah. Please visit: www.leahshenandoah.com
Song by Joanne Shenandoah – Ancient Traveller. Please visit: www.joanneshenandoah.com
Fashion by Patricia Michaels. Please visit: www.pmwaterlily.com