‘The sky’s the limit’: Diné fashion designer to open new 4KINSHIP storefront in Santa Fe

Amy Denet Deal, founder of the Indigenous fashion brand 4KINSHIP, has been in the business for many years, where she has seen the good, the bad and everything in between.

Her newest venture, a new 4KINSHIP storefront in Santa Fe’s Siler Rufina District, makes her feel like she’s starting all over again — but in the best way.

“I’m 60 years old this year, and I feel like I just got out of design school,” Denet Deal said. “It just feels like I’ve got that vibrancy back.”

The 2,440-square-foot store will debut in an opening celebration at 1300 Rufina Circle, Unit B1, in Santa Fe on Friday. The opening marks a new chapter for the sustainable fashion brand, founded in 2015 by Denet Deal.

The new store will allow the brand to showcase “fashion, community and Indigenous creativity” in ways it hasn’t been able to before, a news release said.

Denet Deal started the brand after years of working for fashion brands such as Puma and Reebok. Denet Deal designed activewear for a variety of sports and eventually worked her way up to executive-level positions before she became “disenchanted” by the industry’s production methods, she said.

“There just comes a point as a mom where I realized the job I was doing every single day — putting all this time and effort into creating wealth for these big brands — was damaging the future for my child because I was creating microplastics. I was creating waste,” Denet Deal said. “I was devastating communities where we did the production.”

“So I just took a clean cut and jumped, which was a huge risk financially because I was a single mom, but it was the right thing to do for a lot of reasons.”

Denet Deal launched 4KINSHIP with her daughter while the two were living in Los Angeles. After her daughter graduated high school, Denet Deal moved to New Mexico, a place she considers home because it’s where her birth family resided before her mother was relocated to the Midwest as part of the “Indian Relocation Act” that placed thousands of Native American children in boarding schools in the 1950s.

In moving to New Mexico, Denet Deal, who was raised by an adoptive family in Indiana, looked to reconnect with her heritage and “try to understand what it means to be a Diné woman.”

Denet Deal opened 4KINSHIP’s first storefront in Albuquerque in 2019 before moving the store to Santa Fe’s Canyon Road in 2022. She decided to close the Canyon Road store in March, hoping to take the summer off and focus on writing grants for 4KINSHIP’s nonprofit, Indigenous Futures 4EVER, which supports Native American youth in creative industries.

Those plans came crashing down when she discovered the two-story space in the Siler Rufina Nexus.

“I walked in and I’m like, ‘OK, I guess I’m open again,’” Denet Deal said.

The founder said the space checks off boxes she felt were lacking at her previous stores, including more space, light and the industrial feel of up-and-coming businesses nearby.

The spot has a space upstairs that will serve as an office for Denet Deal and Indigenous Futures 4EVER. The downstairs space will feature the brand’s upcycled products made from repurposed materials, including visual arts, jewelry, fashion, accessories and literature. The space will showcase work by Denet Deal and Indigenous artists throughout North America, ranging from $25 to $2,500.

The downstairs space also has an atelier, a workshop space where the public can see the design process happen, which Denet Deal said will “offer people the opportunity to see how unique and intentional the pieces are” and “really understand the heart of the work we do.”

The store will also hold events such as workshops, fashion shows, markets and live performances — most of which will support the brand’s nonprofit work and the Indigenous communities it celebrates, the founder said.

Denet Deal looks forward to growing into the space, collaborating with nearby businesses, and using her business to help support and build up the Indigenous business community in Santa Fe.

“Being here in this space, I do feel like the sky’s the limit,” Denet Deal said.