Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
Esteemed actress Tantoo Cardinal wore a gasp-inducing, silk feather dress, custom-made by Pueblo designer Patricia Michaels, for the international movie premiere of the highly anticipated Osage drama, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” in Cannes, France.
Cardinal and the dress, which Michaels calls “Tantoo in Flight,” made such an impact on the red carpet that she and the dress were asked to close out the recent Southwestern Association for Indian Art Gala fashion show at Santa Fe Indian Market.
But the dress almost didn’t make it home from France after being held hostage in an international drama, Michaels told ICT from the historic Taos Pueblo where she lives and works.
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It started with French authorities questioning the shipping label on the dress and advanced to French customs officials challenging the origin of the luxurious dress.
“Customs said they believed the garment was made in France, not the U.S., and [that we were] trying to smuggle couture goods out of the country,” Michaels said. “They were demanding additional taxes.”
The iconic dress finally made it home to great fanfare in the U.S., where the dress and designer have been in continuing demand. In spite of the international shipping dispute, the experience at Cannes with Cardinal was about more than just work, she said.
“We had cedar and sweetgrass and I had my corn meal,” she said. “We prayed out to the ocean. It was beautiful. We spent moments of our Native strengths together…We prayed together, we cried together, we laughed together.
“It was an experience of strength and sisterhood.”
‘Flight of grace’
The Cannes Film Festival was a perfect venue for Michaels, whose website includes “showstopper” among a string of words such as innovative, eco-friendly, avante-garde and distinctive to describe her work.
Michaels, Taos Pueblo, named her company PM Waterlily after her Native name, and makes one-of-a-kind custom designs from her Taos Pueblo studio, including high-end limited edition apparel and casual lines for men and women.
During her 20-plus years in business, she has won a string of accolades. She was featured in 2012 as the first Native designer on TV’s “Project Runway,” where she was named first runner-up, and she was invited back to the “Project Runway All Stars” in 2013.
She became the first recipient of the Arts and Design Award from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York City in 2014, and has won a string of awards at SWAIA over the years.
Her work has also been featured repeatedly at New York Fashion Week., and is included in the October 2023 edition of British Vogue, which features “Killers of the Flower Moon” stars Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio.
“I create highly individualized pieces that are elegant, fluid, sophisticated, and organic by fusing my own aesthetic with Native American and European perspectives,” Michaels states on her website. “The detail of every garment, from hand-painted silk feathers, and meshed leather, to textures that echo the natural world, I evoke my own history and culture as part of a larger timeless narrative.”
Michaels has been making a painted eagle feather on silk for many years as a design on shirts, scarves and umbrellas, so it was no surprise when she was approached about designing a dress for Cardinal to wear to the film premiere in Cannes.
Cardinal, Cree, Métis and Nakota, stars in the film as the matriarch of an Osage family whose daughters begin to be mysteriously killed.
Cardinal was referred to Michaels by Michaels client, Luiseño professor Joely Proudfit, who is department chair of American Indian Studies Department at California State University San Marcos.
“When Tantoo knew that she had to get a major dress, Joely said, ‘Well, there’s only one person you should ask, and that would be Patricia,’” Michaels said.
It was one month before Cardinal had to appear at Cannes.
“All that started to make the gears turn in my head,” Michaels said. “I pictured Tantoo in her life’s journey, of how she’s come from such a far place before Native Americans were recognized in film, and all the work that she’s had to do to get into a place where actresses are respected as Native Americans …
“That brought me wanting to do my signature eagle feather painted on silk,” she said. “How could I honor her years of dedication? And then in my mind, it fell from her waist down — it was going to be a huge bonnet …
“I thought if I gave her that floating flight of grace because she’s come such a long way, then that would be the perfect segue to be a part of this celebration,” she said. “I drew it in one hour, so when Joely called, I had the drawing.”
‘Magical’ experience
Michaels uses a unique design technique, pinning down the silk and painting onto it, then drawing further with inks and dyes. She then takes a photo with an iPad and uses a sketch app so she can render it into a finished design.
“That way I can change the hair, the textile image if I want to, but this design came to me and it stayed like that — the eagle feather skirt-bonnet and a black corset top and a long wrapped black satin shawl with a landscape storm scene painted on it,” she said.
Cardinal heartily approved.
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“When I showed it to Tantoo, she said, ‘Oh my God, I love it. If I could ever be so lucky to wear something so beautiful,’” Michaels said.
Although the work was largely paid for by the Apple production company, it didn’t initially cover all the expensive materials that went into the design.
“It wasn’t going to cover enough of the expensive silk,” she said. “There’s over 20 yards on there. The feathers and the piece that goes across the shoulders are a satin bridal silk, a storm cloud image. I had to take a loan out in order to finish buying the silk and pay nine workers to make it.”
But Michaels was determined to do this important job. She had met Cardinal years before when she sold her a feather scarf to wear at an appearance in Santa Fe.
“It was going to get done because this is a Native American person,” Michaels said. “We know that ceremonies are called upon our people, and somebody in the family is honored to be in charge of that ceremony. We always make sure that that family member is taken care of and that they are presented in the most beautiful and respectful light as possible. I got this. I can get it done. I will take this responsibility and make sure that this gets done.”
After raising the funds and renting a special studio with dependable electricity and water instead of the generator she uses for her personal studio, she was left with two and a half weeks to finish the dress. She then took it personally to Cannes just three days before the red carpet event.
“There was no other way to get the dress there safely,” she said. “I brought a bunch of other outfits for her, as she was doing two to three changes a day for the press tour there.”
She also hand-carried vintage Native jewelry that Cardinal wore — about $150,000 in jewelry on loan from Faust Gallery in Santa Fe. She carried the jewelry in a “scruffy backpack that looked very undesirable. I didn’t want to look like I was carrying lots of expensive stuff,” she said.
Once Michaels got there, it was non-stop.
“I was hand-sewing in Joely’s room and in Tantoo’s room each individual feather onto the gown skirt,” she said. “I just worked around the clock to make sure she was perfect. She was so easy to work with. It was wonderful to work with somebody who just celebrates and enjoys life.”
Michaels worked up to the big day of the premiere, even taking the garment into the large, quiet bathroom to sew.
“It’s just what I do, and I know how to get it done,” she said. “And once you see each stitch becomes part of the bigger picture, it becomes magical.”
An inside view
When Cardinal left the room to attend the premiere, Michaels thought her job was largely over.
“Since I hadn’t slept and I was going to the after-party, I needed to stay in the room, eat a real meal, take a nap, shower and get ready,” she said. “I didn’t get to go to the film because I was a last minute add-on and it was sold out.”
Then came the knock on the door, she said.
“At the last minute, I got a knock on my door that there was a wardrobe malfunction and they needed me to come down,” she said. “I grabbed my sewing kit and asked that no one photograph me. It wasn’t Tantoo’s dress that had a problem; it was another actress. They were all dressed up. I’m looking and, oh, there’s [director Martin] Scorsese and Leonardo and some Osage elders. They started a prayer, and I made a really loud call at the end, and they all looked at me like, ‘Who is that?’”
Michaels eventually was able to go back to her room. At the after-party, she finally saw pictures of the red carpet appearance where it had all come together before an international audience who cheered the film and the actors.
“That magical moment of honoring talents of Native Americans and having a good team, a good solid team of people who are just looking out for one another, felt so real and so strong and so good,” she said. “And to be invited to be a part of that was everything to me.”
A French twist
Once it was all over, Michaels was excited to get the dress back to the United States so it could be used again with Cardinal at the SWAIA Gala in August, just four months away.
She put all the garments in one box, filled out a shipping label and left it with the concierge so it could be shipped home. Then she put the vintage jewelry into her carry-on bag and left town.
“I said, ‘I’m leaving and FedEx will come and pick this up,’” she said. “They said, ‘Yeah, we’ll have it for them. We’re going to leave it right here. It’s got all your information.’”
Then red tape appeared on her red road. Arriving back in the U.S., she was notified that FedEx had rejected the package, saying the label was incorrect.
That set off a four-month ordeal of trying to get new paperwork and new labels, all the while dealing with non-English-speaking French representatives. They refused to give the package to a friend who came to pick it up because the package was in Michaels’ name.
It was moved to Cardinal’s account, then back to Michaels’. The $1,500 shipping cost doubled. French customs officials said they believed the garment was made in France, which would require additional taxes to ship out of the country.
With the August gala fast approaching, Michaels began to panic. She could not afford to make another dress and pay the original loan and the shipping. She could not commit to having it for SWAIA yet.
Finally, on Thursday, Aug. 18, just two days before the gala on Aug. 20, the dress arrived.
“I opened the box and everything was just thrown together like spaghetti because customs had gone through it and just thrown it all back together,” she said. “But nothing’s torn, I can fix this. Tantoo arrived Saturday afternoon and said, ‘You’re my guardian angel, because you’re taking good care of me.’ And I said, ‘You’ve come a long way; I’m amazed you’re here.’”
Looking ahead
The SWAIA Gala show was a huge hit, with the crowd cheering and clapping when “Tantoo in Flight” glided down the runway with a feather umbrella. She took a twirl and a bow.
Michaels’ son, Mozart Gabriel, composed music for the show. Cardinal posed for photos with Michaels, Proudfit and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
Not long after the gala, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s costume wing called to express interest in acquiring the dress. By that point, Michaels had to finish ceremonies at the Taos Pueblo.
“I had to finish the ceremonies,” she said. “This is more important. The Met’s going to have to wait.”
And the calls continue to pour in. The dress was recently used in a photo shoot for a magazine.
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