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Margaret
Wood dba Native American Fasion |
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Margaret
Wood dba Native American Fasion
In
the 1970's, my then fiancé and I were offered the opportunity
to open an Indian arts and crafts store in the brand new Adams
Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. It was to be my project since Tom
was an attorney in a downtown law firm. We looked into it and
I became excited about offering clothing inspired by traditional
American Indian fashions to our customers, who would be buying
beautiful Indian jewelry. I started making sketches and kept
a notebook of ideas.
For years I had been
designing and making clothing for myself that was inspired by
traditional Indian clothing styles. Also, when I was a young
girl, my mother had made some "Indian" style clothing
for me. After some research with retail store owners and checking
into small business loans I decided a store was probably not
for us. However, I still had my notebook of sketches and decided
to write a book about making contemporary clothing styles inspired
by traditional designs. With my husband's encouragement and
support, I spent the first year of our marriage writing my
book.
I sent off letters and sample chapters to publishers and went
back to work as a librarian. It took seven years until it was
published by Van Nostrand Reinhold. By then I had one baby
and
another on the way. As soon as people saw the book they started
asking if I sold the skirt on page 72.
I had intended the
book as an educational tool but realized sewing and starting
a home based business was something I could do while raising
my kids, so in 1981 we started Native American Fashions,
Inc. Many years before, I had helped my mother work on
some utilitarian quilts and made my first quilt as an adult
in 1977.
Along with the clothing, I started making more quilts and selling
at Indian markets and occasionally to retail stores. In 1990,
I started changing the focus of my work from clothing to quilts.
Now, my business emphasizes quilts but I will always love clothing
and will continue to produce a limited amount of wearable art
along with my Classics Line. |
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| Margaret
Wood |
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