Where dress up is anything but child's play

Craig Smith |

9/4/2008 - 9/5/08

Fiesta de Santa Fe and fashion go together like — well, like all sorts of things that go together: peaches and cream, sunrise and sunset, fun and games, sopaipillas and honey . Of course, as the annual commemoration of Don Diego de Vargas' reoccupation of Santa Fe in 1692, following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Fiesta is a serious historical re-enactment buttressed by religious observances. But it's also a big and festive party, the sort of event at which venerable dress traditions and new ideas of style can meet, kiss, and happily walk hand in hand.

That joint promenade has been going on for a long time and continues today; but according to Santa Fe native daughter Marian Peteschky Silver, it was especially notable during the first half of the 20th century. From the 1920s through the '50s and even into the '60s, she said, the city was small enough that most people knew one another; today's media distractions were unknown; and a hamlet-wide dress-up party could not only happen but could also sparkle.

"They used to have the Fiesta ball at La Fonda. That was the big thing," said Silver, whose family founded the Guarantee store on the Plaza in 1912 and closed it in 1988. "Everybody did it. It was a very big social thing. I don't remember going to it, but I remember my parents going to it."

In terms of fancy dress, "People went all-out. They didn't just pretend to do it. Everyone dressed up. It was such fun to walk around and see all the costumes. The Plaza had a raised wall around it, and people sat on it and watched. You knew almost everybody. There were not that many people in Santa Fe then."

Think of historical costumes and you probably think mainly about feminine attire. Even though men wore and still wear all kinds of outfits for Fiesta, the ladies are always the cynosures of all eyes. In her girlhood, Silver said, some women might wear family dresses passed down through generations. Others might make something of their own or call on family members for help. There were also plenty of local designers and dressmakers to assist, to create, or to mend. A rainbow of clothing from those sources can be seen during Fiesta, when La Sociedad Folklorica gives its annual fashion show, at 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6 at the James A. Little Theater on the campus of the New Mexico School for the Deaf.

Two names Silver especially remembered were Maida and Julio, flamenco dancers who also made Fiesta and dance clothing. "They made beautiful costumes," she said. "This was probably in the '30s. My mother had a gorgeous one. It was kind of that flamenco idea, with satin and ruffles and velvet and all that.

"Another style was brought from Mexico," she said. "It was called china poblana. It was heavy on sequin decoration, often in the form of a swooping eagle. With those, the women wore peasant blouses. Usually they were white or red and green, also trimmed with sequins."

What about that refuge of the home seamstress, the wavy ribbon trimming known as rickrack? "There was a designer who came later, in the '50s I think, who started the New Mexican interpretation of fiesta dresses," Silver said. "Agnes James started that. She had a shop called Pins and Needles, over where Tyler Grant was, on Lincoln and Marcy."

Many of those rickrack dresses were made from bandanna fabric rather than heavier or more costly material, Silver said. The Guarantee carried a wide selection that came from a factory source in Arizona. "They always had pleated skirts and blouses. A lot of them were made in solid colors, with tons and tons and tons of rickrack on them. But a lot of those were also worn for dress up all year."

In those pre-Internet-shopping days — and despite the lure of Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog sales — there were plenty of in-town sources for the fashion-hungry besides Maida and Julio. Suzanne Whissman-Moore of Double Take vintage store recalled several of them, including Marcy Roth, who sold at La Martita on the Plaza; Rowena, whose outfits were sold in Taos; Martha of Taos; and one Albuquerque designer who simply called herself Jeanette. There were also the Desert Rose line of party clothing, the Ganscraft line from Gans Western Wear in downtown Santa Fe, the hand-painted creations of Kay Stephens in the '50s, and the more standardized merchandise available at both the Guarantee and Dendahl's, another Plaza department store.

"There was one other woman who was well known in town here, who passed on recently, Barbara Hester," Whissman-Moore said. "She would actually take a pair of jeans or an old skirt, whether it be denim, black, whatever, and make a whole new ... fashion with it. She'd make a Fiesta skirt using old fabric, old rickrack. She did other things, too, like jackets. She spent all her spare time dancing at La Fonda.

"I recall you could still buy a certain kind of Fiesta wear back in the '70s at La Martita on the Plaza. The woman who owned that carried clothes in all the fabulous Mexican colors. You could get any kind of three-tiered skirt, a traditional Mexican skirt in bright orange or yellow or fuchsia. She had Mexican wedding dresses, too."

Whissman-Moore agreed with Silver that rickrack was often the king of Fiesta fashion — though queen is probably a better word, considering who wore it. "The amount of rickrack they'd put on a skirt was amazing," she said. "That vintage look is still very popular, and it's probably more popular than ever. ... I think it all goes with the new Western fashion idea. It's kind of like the current Hollywood style.

"You know, this [look] goes back to all the Pueblo and Navajo women, who made amazing festival dresses, the kind that used to be called a squaw dress," Whissman-Moore explained. "They were often embellished with silver. Then there were the other Mexican fiesta clothes — velvet, sequined, hand-painted. Some that I have have geometric designs or even designs of a whole village. Or they're fully beaded or have lots of lace."

Despite the ornamentation, the point was freedom: the yards of fabric were cut and sewn to be comfortable and to flow easily when the person walked or danced.

Since fashions change and time moves on, not every Santa Fe woman will go into full Fiesta attire nowadays, Whissman-Moore said. Those who do might opt for the formal royalty look, as worn by the Fiesta Queen and her court. Perhaps they adopt the vivacious flamenco style that includes lace mantillas, flowers, and combs in the hair. Still others might enjoy clothing rooted in Mexican folk traditions — the ruffed, butterfly-like headdress and white or pastel dresses found in the Tehuantepec region of Mexico or a blouse-and-skirt combo bright with embroidered flowers, birds, and butterflies.

Mariachi wear, with its embroidered sombrero, blouse with a lace tie, and silver-button-ornamented skirt, is another popular option. So is traditional Western ranch wear of a short-sleeve blouse and flaring skirt, usually with rickrack trimming. And for those less historically inclined, the all-inclusive look known as "Santa Fe formal" or "Santa Fe festive" has its advantages: it often means just raiding the closet and jewelry box.

Interestingly enough, fiesta couture has become part of a mainstream fashion trend, Whissman-Moore said. "Women from Dallas or Chicago or the East Coast — I noticed over the years — they would only wear [fiesta] items when they were in Santa Fe. Now they're wearing them in other parts of the country because it's fashionable.

"I would say designers, they're really mixing designs up now. You see it in all the magazines. They're layering one kind of skirt on top of another with a petticoat under it, in square-dancing style. And they're wearing them dripping in turquoise. Where you once saw the outfits with moccasins, now they wear cowboy boots. Then they'll wear an old Victorian blouse or even a denim shirt or blouse."

Whissman-Moore insisted that men are not left out in the cold at Fiesta. Vintage cowboy shirts are increasingly popular, she said, especially "the big old rock 'n' roll, Roy Rogers-, Gene Autry-, Buck Owens-style shirts." And for those who prefer a more sedate profile, there are the dignified outfits Silver recalls from her girlhood. "The men wore satin shirts with the ribbons, like they have now. Or the velvet shirts with the silver buttons and things like that." Nor were children left out. Silver had a china poblana outfit when she was 5, and she remembers little boys dressed up in mariachi garb. "It was fun to walk around the Plaza in those days and see the beautiful costumes — especially the types of things that Maida and Julio made. The formal look, the lace mantilla with the comb look, only even much more lavish."

details
Merienda de la Fiesta, the historical Fiesta fashion show, presented by La Sociedad Folklorica
3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6
James A. Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf campus, 1060 Cerrillos Road
$10 at the door (includes complimentary bizcochitos and Mexican chocolate); call the Fiesta Council, 988-7575, for information

There have been many Fiesta fashion avatars over the years, but one of the most memorable was Geneva "Genoveva" Chavez, for whom the city's south-side community center is named.

Born on April 17, 1942, she grew up in the Banana Hill barrio on the city's east side and loved singing at Fiesta from the time she was 16. She always came back home for it, even when her later singing career took her to Los Angeles and then to Acapulco.

Chavez eventually went to work for the state and was a mainstay of the Motor Vehicle Division for decades. But music was still her best friend: she performed at night and on weekends, most often at the Rancho de Chimayó restaurant, and, of course, at every Fiesta. For her performances, she always dressed in garments that identified her as a woman of unique taste in clothing as well as music.

The artist variously known as La Reina de las Fiestas, the First Lady of Fiesta, and La Rosa de Santa Fe died on Dec. 5, 1997, at age 55, after a 13-year battle with lupus. Her namesake community center opened in 2000.




Friday, Sept. 5

6 a.m. Pregón de la Fiesta: Rosario Chapel, Rosario Cemetery, 499 N. Guadalupe St.

9 a.m.-6 p.m. Arts, crafts & food booths, the Plaza

10 a.m.-midnight Entertainment, the Plaza

Noon Official opening of Fiesta, the Plaza

2 p.m. Entrada de Don Diego de Vargas, the Plaza


Saturday, Sept. 6

9 a.m. Desfile de los Niños (Children's Pet Parade), the Plaza & surrounding streets

10 a.m.-midnight Entertainment, the Plaza

10:45 a.m. Queen's Audience, the Plaza

3 p.m. Merienda de la Fiesta (historical Fiesta fashion show), sponsored by La Sociedad Folklorica; James A. Little Theater,

1060 Cerrillos Road, $10 at the door

6 p.m.-midnight Gran Baile, Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., $20 at the Lensic

Performing Arts Center, 988-1234


Sunday, Sept. 7

9:30 a.m. Solemn Procession from Palace of the Governors, 105 W. Palace Ave., to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, 213 Cathedral Place

10 a.m. Pontifical Mass, Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

1 p.m. Desfile de la Gente (Historical/Hysterical Parade), from De Vargas Center to downtown and back

5:30 p.m. Closing ceremonies, the Plaza

7 p.m. Mass of Thanksgiving and Candlelight Procession, Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi