For your consideration in this lot is a rare original "Martha Of Taos" velvet blouse with silver adornments. Martha of Taos was synonymous with Navajo broomstick skirts and velvet or cotton blouses adorned with handmade silver beads and pins, a traditional Navajo fashion she popularized into a staple. Martha Reed was born April 23, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The family moved to Stillwater, Okla., where she attended school, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oklahoma A & M College (now Oklahoma State University) in 1944, and relocated to Taos in 1953 where she owned and operated the famous Martha of Taos shop next door to the Taos Inn for more than 38 years. The shop employed Navajo native workers. A key piece of Martha's style was her take on traditional Navajo velvet blouses adorned with concho buttons and silver pins. For Martha, the velvet represented elegance and the silver-work added flair and strength. Historically, the government gave the Navajo people thread and fabric, but never scissors. The Navajo's were stretched in order to creatively hide the frayed edges made by the knife cuts from trimming down the fabric. Thus all of the many tucks that we see on traditional velvet blouses. Martha honored this style of creation by doing similar handiwork with her velvets. This blouse is of a brick red velvet. The blouse has a mandarin style collar with calico fabric lining. The front of the blouse has eleven pleats and five silver and turquoise "second phase butterfly" buttons. The silver butterfly buttons measure 2 3/8" x 1 3/8 with a turquoise cabochon in the center of each. The turquoise cabochons measure an average of 3/4" x 1/2". The butterfly's are on an opening that closes with snaps on the inside. Across the bodice, back, along the shoulder seams, down each arm and on the cuffs are silver bench bead buttons, over ninety five of them. The five silver adornments and bench bead buttons are all original coin, ingot or sterling silver from local Navajo silversmiths contracted by Martha Reed. The fiver bowtie shaped adornments are all Second Phase Navajo (2nd Phase) showing a thick heavy construction all dating to the 1940-1950's having beautiful repousse and stamping and set with polished cabochons of North American Turquoise. The lower part of the blouse is long wasted and has a side zipper of 9". The sleeves are 3/4 and measure 15 1/2" across the back shoulders is 18", and from the collar to the bottom on the back is 25". This blouse is in good condition with no obvious signs of wear and is not only a work of art but a classic wardrobe piece, the like of which have only been seen in a museum. One of the only examples we can find to be brought to the public market for sale.