Fort Lonesome is a design-forward custom western wear and chain-stitch embroidery studio based in Austin, TX.  They work collaboratively with clients to create works that capture the stories of their wearers, in an effort to create pieces that slowly and carefully consider the symbiosis of art, narrative, and technician-ship. Their process is led by considerations of necessity and sustainability, and our designs are inspired by the natural world and its visible and invisible energies.

 

  Company founder Kathie Sever began working in western wear in 2000.  She found herself spending a fair amount of time returning to her attempts to rebuild and make functional a hundred-year-old chainstitch embroidery machine she’d purchased.  These machines have a legacy of connectedness with much of western wear’s most famous tailors.  At that time, information about or mentors in the use of these machines was near to nil, so the learning curve was long and slow.  But after many years of tinkering and communicating with some far-away fellow comrades, the gifts these machines, and their ability to confer the energy and individualism of their operators, resulted in the birth of Fort Lonesome in the fall of 2012.

 

  In the coming months and years the team at Fort Lonesome grew to include first Dana Falconberry, then soon after, Christina Hurt Smith and Amrit Khalsa, each of whom brought to the table strong backgrounds in diverse art and design, and whose collaborative approach to working together grew into a shared aesthetic and style.

   Since then the company has continued to evolve and grow, but slowly and always with the intention of pushing the boundaries of this long lost art form.

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   Fort Lonesome has graciously donated two chainstitch patches to KFF Foundation Auction. Stay tuned to see which ones!