‘Gr8 Comeback’: Union Western Clothing
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH)– A little more than 20 years ago, Jerry Atwood found his calling as an artist designing vintage western clothing.
In recent years, he’s who people with a taste for that style are looking for, especially up-and-coming music artists. Around six years ago, he started being the go-to guy for country singers on the rise.
He started his business called Union Western Clothing.
While building a reputation, he remembers a certain stylist who needed some help sketching and designing a suit reaching out on Instagram. Two weeks later, she dropped the name of her client.
It was award-winning recording artist Post Malone.
“I had actually never heard of Post Malone,” Atwood said. “I got on my laptop, went to YouTube and the first video that pops up was a song called ‘Rockstar’ that had something like 500 million views. I think I was drinking coffee and did like a literal spit take and was like, ‘who is this guy?’”
The Grammy-nominated pop sensation put Atwood’s work in the national spotlight at award shows and events. As a result, more artists like Lil Nas X and Lily Allen wanted to be seen wearing the Union Western Clothing style.
Things were only looking up for Union Western Clothing until the COVID-19 pandemic affected music artists’ ability to make appearances and perform in front of audiences.
“They would buy suits for tour or for like a music video or whatever and these things aren’t happening,” Atwood said.
However, now that the world seems to be reopening with more people eligible to be vaccinated, he’s regaining momentum again.
“Right now a lot of my business is wedding customers who are getting married in the late summer,” he said.
Meanwhile, Atwood continues to work on his craft. He said even though he never believes no one truly becomes a master of their craft, he feels confident that he’ll only get better.
“The more that I learn about tailoring, just the more my interest in it really grows,” he said.
If you’d like a custom outfit created by Union Western Clothing, send an email to info@unionwestern.com.