Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1490460
8 0 G R A P H I C S P R O • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M S O F T W A R E T O S U B S T R A T E | L O N W I N T E R S A P P A R E L D E C O R A T I N G At 21 years old, Lon Winters was the production manager for Ocean Pacific and started his 30+ year career reclaiming screens. He's the president and founder of Colorado-based Graphic Elephants, an inter- national consulting firm and apparel decoration studio specializing in screen printing technical advances, plant design, layout, troubleshooting, productivity, quality analysis, and complete apparel deco- rating solutions. Learn more at www.graphicelephants.com. The Here and There of Westernwear 'I wanna be a cowboy. You can be my cowgirl…' B eing from Colorado and the West, we like both kinds of music, country and western! Over the last three plus decades we have worked with a number of western cloth- ing brands that originate right here in the Rocky Mountains. As many of you know, brand and line development has its chal- lenges, but we have been doing it long enough that we have more method than madness at this stage. It typically begins with a meet- ing where the designers and developers dis- cuss subject matter in broad strokes. We talk about what's trending in fashion according to the client. Design evolves like everything else. It does seem like western follows main- stream by a season or two, so there is always plenty of influence available for inspiration. e client typically gives us the direction on subject matter and style. Every spring and fall we develop, test, modify, sample, and run production on two brands for both men's and women's styles. Two very different markets. Men's styles lean toward darker garments and tonal inks where women's continue to be more pastel and softer styles with more opaque brighter tones. ere (Images courtesy Lon Winters)