Millicent Rogers: Collector and Fashionista

Just before we evacuated the Ranch, we paid a visit to the Millicent Rogers Museum. Although she only lived in Taos for the last few years of her life, Rogers spent those years accumulating a treasure trove of Native American weavings, ceramics, sculpture, silver and turquoise jewelry.



The museum (rightly so) focuses on the items in the collection and those who created them, but it left me wishing for more photos of Millicent wearing all her treasures. I love how she mixed costume jewelry, couture and these beautiful Native American pieces so effortlessly, and I would have loved to see a few mannequins decked out in her signature looks.

The highlight of the museum is undoubtedly it's astonishing collection of black on black ceramics by the famous potter Maria Martinez.




I began college as a ceramics major, and we studied Maria's work extensively in every course I ever took. She and her husban Julian are credited with reinvigorating pueblo pottery at a time when it was in danger of dying out forever. Their unique method of firing pots to create the effect of shiny and mat surfaces, most famously in black, breathed new life into an ancient art form. How's that for a legacy?