Thistles West

Thistles West was started by Meredith Lockhart in 1989 in a tiny farm house on the side of a hill in north eastern Kansas. In 1991 it was moved to a 100 year old school house in Cummings, Kansas. For many years our craftsmen and women shipped western fashions to boutiques across the country. Country music stars wore clothing from Thistles West on CD covers, videos and award shows. After a brief hiatus, we decided to revive Thistles West to design and produce bags, belts and fashions with a western flair that were different from what is on the market. Many embellishment ideas come from rodeo queen wear, adding them to western and crossover fashions. Meredith likes creating things that women feel good about wearing.

Thistles West does design and produce most of the accessories. Our sister company, Merezia, does retail sales of Thistles West designs as well as continuing retail sales of rodeo queen designs. Thistles West designs can be purchased from Merezia on line, and many items will be available in local shops and boutiques across the country.

In 1997, Thistles West went on hiatus, but we decided to return because of so many requests to make clothing for rodeo queens for the Miss Rodeo America Pageant and other pageants. The new company doing retail sales of custom clothing was named Merezia.

Merezia now also features on line retail sales of Thistles West designs, and will feature products from other designers including jewelery, and decor items.

If you see something on our pages you like, give us a call in case it is available but not yet in the on line sales catalog. We currently have one phone number for both Thistles West and Merezia, 1.913.886.2247.

After many years of work in interior design and art related work, Meredith Lockhart created Thistles West to produce and market western and crossover fashions.

In 1997, Meredith decided to give something back to the community and went to work for an arts organization in Kansas City, Missouri that did programs for inner city, at-risk and adjudicated youth. A few years ago, Meredith started designing again because of so many requests to make clothing for rodeo queens for the Miss Rodeo America Pageant and other pageants.

She decided to revive Thistles West and make bags, belts and fashions with a western flair that were different than what is on the market.Inspiration for the designs comes from the love of the western culture. Meredith has had horses since she was a young teenager. She married a farmer and lives where she is surrounded by horses, cattle and beautiful countryside. Yes, Kansas is not all flat with wheat fields for miles and miles.

Meredith is taking embellishment ideas from the rodeo queen wear and adding them to the accessories. She likes creating things that women feel good about wearing. Her love of western themed artwork has driven her to design bags adorned with giclee-printed leather. She has found several area artists that do high quality original artwork that compliment her designs