Connection to Culture

What Are The Founding Inspirations Behind The Unique Fashion Designs of ACONAV?

Since the beginning of Loren Aragon's venture into the arts, he's always sought to share his talents while expressing his connection with the place he calls home, Haa'ku the Acoma Pueblo. 

Nested atop a sandstone mesa, the Acoma Pueblo of New Mexico is known to its people as Haa'ku in the Keres Language. Haa'ku means a place prepared as the final settling place of the Acoma people. It is a place of sacredness, beauty and mystery. It is a place with a rich, eventful history and a culture deeply rooted into centuries old traditions and an elegant pottery art culture. 

The ancestral traditions are still practiced to this day and the pueblo is known to be one of the oldest continually inhabited civilizations in North America.  The pottery art has grown to become a recognizable symbol all throughout the southwest and around the world. The acclaim for the well known art pieces is credited to four matriarchs of the Acoma People - Marie Z. Chino, Lucy Lewis, Jessie Garcia and Juana Leno. The legacies of the four mothers are carried on by many talented names in both the traditional and contemporary pottery styles.

Aragon has formulated a means of connecting and sharing his culture through couture fashion designs. He states:

"I am motivated by the stories and life lessons of my culture. The ideas I gather are orchestrated and visually vocalized on a canvas of my choosing.

It may seem that my work is severed from the conventional practices of my Acoma people. Truthfully, I value and sincerely appreciate our ancestral arts. However, I feel it necessary to demonstrate an investigation into other art forms, in parallel with observing historic and cultural preservation. I challenge myself to find new and undiscovered ways to represent our culture with the hopes of igniting the interests of future generations.
 
Each creation is an extension of my life, love, creativity, and prayers. Through my creations, I am able to share my beliefs, maintain a connection with my origins, and reveal my individuality." -Loren Aragon

The influence of the Acoma Pueblo culture on ACONAV fashion...