Nathalie Home: NOT Home Anymore

Have you ever had a favorite store where you could find all sorts of things you weren't even looking for? All sorts of wonderful things for your home or yourself? Well, for a long time, Nathalie Home of Santa Fe has been that store for me. But on a recent trip to Santa Fe, both the goods and the service were so terrible at Nathalie Home that I will not call it one of my favorite sources for home anymore.

Nathalie Kent started Nathalie Home with a fabulous selection of clothes, hats, boots, and jewelry. The Home store has always had an eclectic and interesting mix of Southwestern, Mexican, European, and Indian textiles, furnishings, and decorative objects seamlessly mixing antiques with contemporary goods. I've always been able to find something terrific for either myself or my home at Nathalie's, and it is one of my favorite places for gifts.

However, on a recent trip to Nathalie Home, I found everything disappointing. The clothing section seemed to be very thin, and not many surprises. It is full of very expensive, but not very unusual Southwestern clothes. The Home store has moved from its former location down the hill, and is now squashed into a small space adjacent to the clothing store. All of the goods in the Home section seem very predictable and tired: the same things one finds at every Southwestern store. There was nothing new or interesting. But it was the customer service that was deplorable and most telling about the changes at Nathalie Home.

I had been at the International Folk Art Show outside in the heat and the rain all day, so I was dressed in Patagonia travel clothes and a baseball hat with a small backpack. When I entered in Nathalie Home, I saw a beautiful straw hat that immediately grabbed my attention. However, closer inspection revealed that the intricate weaving along the crown had a hole right in the front and it was growing larger every time someone picked it up. When I asked if perhaps there was another hat, or one with a similar shape, I was told it was the last one of the season. I will not buy a hat with a hole in the crown, so I put it down and walked on. No one was terribly interested in helping me; I think I didn't look the part for them. When I asked upon leaving if they expected any more hats with a similar crown, she decided to go ask someone (Nathalie?) for advice. The salesperson came to me and told me that she could do me a favor and give me 10% off. 10%???? For a hat with a hole in the front of the crown??? ...They must have taken me for a stupid tourist looking for a trinket from Canyon Road...even a hat with a hole in it at almost full price.

The people at Nathalie Home made the most egregious error a retailer can make: they judged me by what I had on. I'm sure that my Patagonia travel clothes and backpack and baseball hat on tony Canyon Road didn't suit them. Little did they know that my closet is full of their hats, boots, shawls, and other items. But it shouldn't have mattered.

The Home section is one of the weakest of any home stores I've been in this year. The clothing section has lost much of its pizzaz. And the customer service was unacceptable. Nathalie Home has been moved off of my list of favorite sources. And by the way: that $300.00 silk ruched shawl at Nathalie Home? Well, the very same ones were available at the International Folk Art Show that weekend for $100.00 from the Chinese dealer!!