Dolores Gonzales

Dolores Consuelo Barcelo Gonzales (June 6, 1907– 1994) was a Mexican–American fashion designer based in Tucson, Arizona. She is best known for blending Native American and Mexican clothing traditions to develop distinctive southwest resort wear dresses known as fiesta dresses (also known among other names as the pejorative squaw dress). She founded the company Dolores Resort Wear that manufactured dresses for the American market, selling in upscale department stores across the country. The iconic design was appropriated and copied by other designers throughout the southwest becoming synonymous with mid-twentieth century regionalist fashion of the American Southwest. The dress design became the official dress of the American Square-dancing movement.

Life Born Dolores Consuelo Barcelo in the northern Mexican state of Sonora on June 6, 1907, to Father Helberto Barcelo and Mother Beatrice Barcelo. She immigrated to Douglas, Arizona with her family in 1911 fleeing the civil unrest created by the Mexican Revolution. In 1962, Barcelo convinced Gonzales to close her shop, seeing an end to the trend in fiesta dresses.

According to Dolores's Son Lee Gondolas, the store, called the Dolores Shop received orders from all over the world. Dolores also had market outlets in Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis and New York. In 1956, a Los Angeles Times Reporter dubbed her "The Dior of the Desert." Major department stores sent buyers to the Dolores Shop to purchase dresses that sold for $100 to $300 ($ to $ in dollars). J.C. Penney wanted to sell her dressing in their stores, but Gonzales refused. Famous individuals, such as Mamie Eisenhower, Pat Nixon and Cyd Charisse were known to have bought Gonzales' dresses.

Gonzales died in July 1994 in California.