I make western shirts and jackets. I cut, sew, and embroider everything in my studio in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
Once known as “Busy Berlin”, Kitchener was full of factories, home to union shops of major shirt brands like Arrow and Forsyth, and eleven button factories. Here, like everywhere else in North America, the domestic garment industry now lies in ruins.
I’ve worked in the garment industry for a long time, but only learned that history after I moved to Kitchener a few years ago. (it isn’t on the list of places in fellow Nova Scotian Hank Snow’s ode to being itinerant, “I’ve Been Everywhere” but the adjacent city of Waterloo is, between Baraboo and Kalamazoo)
I combined my interest in Hank Snow, country music history and westernwear with the idea of slow fashion to write this blog and make the clothes. I’ve copied vintage styles and made new ones using traditional western detailing, like the organic cotton twill zip jackets, and others in wool gabardine.
Mostly, I’ve done men’s shirts in different cottons, vintage fabrics, and Tencel, which is quite similar to the rayon gabardine 1950s western shirts were made of.
Making the shirts got me back into sewing after a few years away from it, and led me into the world of vintage machines, including a 1930s Singer 114w103 chainstitch embroidery machine.
I like to research and use techniques that are no longer part of most clothing production.
Westernwear’s origins are in Native American clothing and decoration, combined with European materials, styles and contruction. Buffalo Bill Cody’s dress exemplifies all these factors.
The style continued to evolve and became the coveted uniform of many entertainers in Hollywood and Nashville.
Western tailors (who were often formally trained Eastern European immigrants) like Rodeo Ben and Nathan Turk and Jack Weil popped up all over America.
And then, Nudie.
I like the working cowboy style too, and 70s western shirts. This picture is from Calgary, 1929.
This is one of my shirts, made from vintage poly cotton with chainstitching.
Hank Snow in a sparkling Nudie suit, with the Rainbow Ranch Boys:
