Moonshine - Western Wear  Collection 

We proudly present to you our Moonshine western wear collection.  From the very beginning of Moonshine vintage western wear has been an inspiration. In late 2020 we decided to start working on a new, exciting project. It all started with the purchase of an antique Cornely chainstitch embroidery machine. A wonderful and ingenious machine that was used to make embroideries on classic American western shirts from the 1930’s to 1960’s.


Inspired by the magnificent art and craftsmanship of the late, great Nathan Turk, Nudie Cohn, Rodeo Ben and many more Western wear tailors from the 1940’s and 1950’s. We started spending hours and hours of practice behind our old Cornely, resulting in our first collection of fine western shirts.

Every shirt is hand made in collaboration with José, a highly skilled tailor, in her small atelier in the south of The Netherlands. During the process we added subtle, multicolored embroideries on the front and back yokes, cuffs and collars. Classic hand stitched arrow pockets, contrasting piping, shotgun cuffs and USA made pearl snap closures add the finishing touch to these dreamlike shirts that take you back to the glory days of western wear.

How it's made 

We would like to take you on a small adventure to show you how each shirt is made, from a paper pattern to a fully detailed embroidered western shirt.  After sourcing the high quality rayon gabardine we deliver the fabric to José, who cuts all the pieces and patches that need to be embroidered.
Once we receive these pieces we start drawing and designing patterns before embroidering the front and back yokes, cuffs and collars on our antique chainstitch machine. It takes about 6 to 8 hours to embroider one shirt.

Once all pieces and patches are finished we wrap up the embroidery process by knotting and tying off all loose threads by hand. After this step we send all the patches back to José, who then carefully starts putting each piece together by hand while adding contrast piping on the front yokes, collars and cuffs. After many hours of sewing and stitching, our western shirt starts to take shape. 

The final steps of the process add the finishing touch to this dream project.
First the pearl snap closures need to be attached to the shirt. A grand total of 15 snaps are measured and set by hand to give the shirt an authentic look. After that, the curved chest pockets will be finished by reinforcing the seams with hand stitched ‘arrow heads’, which is the last step in the labour-intensive creative process of our western shirts. In total, it takes about 15 hours of labour just to make one western shirt and we are really proud to share that the whole process takes place in The Netherlands.  

- all analog photos of Luka & Lina by Nikki van de Poel - Satellite June - 
www.satellitejune.com