Consuelo Pascual
Consuelo Pascual (Navajo) is a 2005 graduate from New Mexico State University, where she majored in Fashion Merchandising and minored in Marketing and Management. She is currently pursuing a degree in Fashion Design from the Santa Fe Community College.
With her interests in fashion design, music, art, and comic books, Pascual’s influences draw from varying sources that include science fiction flicks as well popular television shows such as Project Runway, Sex and the City, and Ugly Betty. The visually stimulating work of Tim Burton and the late Alexander McQueen find their way into her aesthetic choices, and her musical interests in punk, rock, industrial, trance, 1980s new wave, alternative, and Indie music also influence her selections in fashion design. Though her instructors have advised against it, Pascual incorporates unconventional materials (like vinyl), and subculture designs (like skulls), into high-end couture - producing sophisticated dresses with a distinctive edge.
Recently featured in the March Santa Fe Art of Fashion show (read my review of the show here), Pascual's latest designs are chic futuristic dresses - influenced by the blackness of outer space, the glimmer of stars, and the architecture of a fluid space ship.
She also plays with fabric texture, and her latest pieces feature variations of pleats - the intricate detailing of which is time consuming yet stunning. The designs formed by pleating has Pascual creating varying silhouettes, and this, combined with her space cadet aesthetic, creates an exciting new path for Native fashion.
For her recent showing in Albuquerque, Pascual created two new dresses and fun accessories: armbands in silver metal or black fringe, and turquoise drop earrings - enhancing her looks and design vision.
(images above are my own photos taken at the Indigenous Image fashion show in Albuquerque during GON, images below are from the preparation of the Art of Fashion show in Santa Fe last month)
