As the website to her Taos, New Mexico museum so aptly puts it, Millicent Rogers was "a woman who didn't just consume style, but created it." Born in 1902, the Standard Oil heiress often graced the pages of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, topping international Best Dressed Lists along the way. In 1947, she made a bold move, quite literally. She packed up her things and moved to Taos into a 17th century adobe hacienda with her youngest son, Paul. In addition to her Balmains, Balenciagas and Verduras, Millicent added Southwestern jewelry, Navajo weavings, and Native American pottery and artifacts to her collection. In 1956, Paul created the Millicent Rogers Museum as a legacy to his mother to house the vast collection she amassed over the years.
I love the Rogers' Silver Screen meets Southwest style--fluid gowns ala Garbo, eyebrows Dietrich would've killed for and crisp, structured looks that scream Katherine Hepburn all mixed with large stone necklaces and stacks upon stacks of silver and turquoise bracelets.
Left: Millicent Rogers, resplendent in silver and turquoise
As much as I love Ali MacGraw's wardrobe that launched a million trends in the 1970s flick Love Story (think slim knit sweaters, perfect winter hats and a shiny head of hair), I adore her current O'Keeffe look (more on that later) of a pristine white shirt, sleek ponytail, gaucho-style and long black skirt. The former model and actress moved to Santa Fe in 1994 to flee the trappings of Hollywood and has been an outspoken advocate of the city ever since.
Right: Ali MacGraw in New Mexico
Below: Georgia O'Keeffe
Below: Ippolita's interpretation of the Millicent Rogers look (available at Neiman Marcus)
Zac Posen's Spring runway channeling Ali MacGraw and Georgia O'Keeffe (Model: Catherine McNeil)
The most famous adoptive Santa Fean is of course the artist Georgia O'Keeffe who lived and painted on Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico just outside of Santa Fe. Her work is at once soft and bold, smooth and sharp, with colors inspired not only by nature but by her profound imagination. Almost as equally, I love her slightly masculine and eccentric style of dress that mixes blouses and loafers with head scarves, brooches and wide brimmed hats.
Thinking of the Spring 2008 collections, one can draw clear parallels to not only O'Keeffe and MacGraw's personal styles (see Zac Posen) but to many of O'Keeffe's oil paintings as well. Silk and satin dresses from Oscar de la Renta and Derek Lam that echo the shapes and colors of O'Keeffe's New Mexican mesa landscape. Phillip Lim's long, white dress coming to life on the runway like the lush Bella Donna and the fluid Calvin Klein column contrasting with the explosive black Gucci gown like the soft, yet craggy abstraction entitled Series I.
I was not the only one inspired by this surprisingly stylish destination, it seems...
Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico /Out Back of Marie’s II, 1930
From Oscar de la Renta's Spring/Summer 2008 Collection
From Derek Lam's Spring/Summer 2008 Collection
Bella Donna, 1939
From Phillip Lim's Spring/Summer 2008 Collection
Series I—From the Plains, 1919 
From the Gucci Spring/Summer 2008 Collection
From the Calvin Klein Spring/Summer 2008 Collection
Photo of Ali McGraw courtesy of www.nmcf.org; photo of Millicent Rogers courtesy of www.amnh.org; photo of Georgia O'Keeffee courtesy of Amazon.com; Georgia O'Keeffe artwork courtesy of The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum; Runway photos courtesy of Style.com.History of Millicent Rogers courtesy of Liveauctiontalk.com and The Millicent Rogers Museum.
