"It all started with duct tape,"
says every cowgirl that has ever had a good idea but by no means knows how to accomplish it.
It’s the beautiful way of “winging it” as I like to so frequently refer to most of my wild ideas. This idea did actually work for the better. Yes, I did show up to my junior prom head to toe in duct tape though. My wild idea to win scholarship money to go to college was one of my very first big sewing projects. This chance in a contest confirmed my love for designing clothing and helped push me to pursue a degree in fashion design! I completed my education at Kansas State University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Apparel and Textiles. Upon completing my degree, I spent time traveling and sewing for myself as I held multiple rodeo queen titles. With these years of experience designing and sewing my own clothing for pageants, I wanted to help rodeo queens look and feel their best in unique and custom clothing for pageants and events. This is where Midwest Twist was born!
I was born and raised in the Midwest! I bet you can start to understand how I created the name of my brand. Midwest Twist got its name while I was driving across the states as Miss Rodeo Kansas 2019. I knew that after being a rodeo ambassador I wanted to officially start my clothing business even though I had been making custom pieces for years. I wanted it to be something different, yet relatable and easy to remember. It needed to correlate back to who I was without using my name. That led me to where I came from and something about my home state people knew. I realized all people really knew about my state was that it was flat, nothing came from there and it had tornadoes. While that isn’t true it also isn’t completely false. As I ran tornadoes and Kansas through my head, I finally landed on Midwest Twist. I thought it was ironic that my fashion brand would have routes not to a coast where fashion is said to be from. It was my way of tipping my hat to the place that could in fact have something other than wheat and cattle. Twist as in twister isn’t hard to figure out either as Kansas is right in the middle of tornado alley. Twist also ties in my love for trying to create something different and always put my own “twist” to the pieces I create.
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In 2021, I officially started my business after completing my title of Miss Rodeo USA 2020. While working long hours I decided to add my first employee, Otto the Mini Schnauzer. He’s been the brand mascot ever since. As for his work ethic… He would rather play with his toys and chew on leather scraps. Since then I have added more machines, techniques and skills to be able to bring to you more variety in custom products. I now not only sew for those in the western industry and rodeo queens, but for anyone who has a great idea that needs to be brought to life!
Cheers to that!