How Fort Worth Fashion Designer Kate Mefford Turns Antiques Into One-of-a-Kind Neckwear — Inside Sunday Supper

Kate Mefford’s silhouettes and wearable pieces are rooted as much in materiality as aesthetics. Her truly one-of-a-kind pieces, named after pioneering women of the West, combine seemingly disparate items: Civil War horse buckles and denim, antique charms reworked into necklaces, and French military jackets.

While some designers begin with a sketch, Mefford’s creations emerge from travel, her love of history, and an intuitive approach to design she has refined over the past two years.

“Pieces don’t start from zero. They start from meaning,” Mefford tells PaperCity.

Her collection — spanning scarves, collars, capes, and jewelry — repurposes vintage textiles, equestrian hardware, and small charms. Sourced from historical excavations and European flea markets, no two pieces are identical. Her creations recently sold out at Round Top, which makes posting products on her website challenging, she says with a laugh.

“I find that I am drawn to military things,” she says. “Throughout my brand, there’s a push-pull between feminine and masculine. You’ll see lace, and then you’ll see something that was on the battlefield. I just love that blend.”

From Collecting Antiques to Making Them Wearable With Sunday Supper

Raised on a cattle ranch in Brenham, Texas, Mefford says both her mother and grandmother were artists, something she credits for her creativity. Her earliest memories are of gathering scraps from around the house to make outfits for her Barbie. After studying fashion at Texas Christian University, she went on to work in public relations, college advising, career counseling, and commercial photography. By 2020, she was ready to explore something entirely new.

In August 2023, a chance stop at an estate sale for Fort Worth philanthropist George Ann Brown Carter Bahan “changed everything,” she says. “I had never been to an estate sale before. I showed up and thought, ‘There’s so much history here.’ All of the furnishings, her wardrobe, and pieces — they’re artifacts from Texas history.”

At the time, Mefford’s goal was to buy and hopefully resell some of the items she found. She started her Sunday Supper brand as a vintage interior decor reselling company, but her mind quickly turned to fashion as she accumulated artifacts and textiles.

“How can I wear this thing?” That recurring question led to experimentation. Brass pieces could be turned into neckwear, while vintage denim could be cut into elegant collars. As someone who is admittedly “always cold,” Mefford has a personal love for anything that drapes over her shoulders and neck. One of her first hits was a denim bolo tie, made with a Civil War brass medallion. She also found uses for the tops of jeans by repurposing the belt loops to thread silk scarves through, which she crowns with horse medallions.

“The medallions were used on working horses, starting in the United Kingdom in the 1600s,” she says. “Families would make brass molds with a symbol that represented a family or village. They were symbols of good luck. The ones we use are from the early 1900s.”

Hunting for Wearable Heirlooms

Because most of Mefford’s pieces start with a historical relic, sourcing has become a challenge in itself. When she isn’t buying Civil War-era brass at auction, she relies on a network of contacts she has built over the past two years. Estate sales and historical digs across the South continue to surface new pieces, which collectors quickly snatch up.

“I make really great relationships with dealers and the people who are my sources for gathering materials,” she says. “I couldn’t do this without them. That’s also why my pieces are not cheap. My customers are investing in history, and there is a finite number of these pieces out there.”

Another key source is France. Every weekend, small towns across the countryside host brocantes (flea markets), where, she says, you “show up and pray for the best.” Those sourcing trips have led to a collection of 1970s French military jackets and Parisian keychain charms, which inspired her Guilty Pleasures series — curated necklaces that reference everyday vices like candy and alcohol.

With stock running low on her most popular Sunday Supper pieces, Mefford is focused on production and becoming “a little less transient.” She was recently offered a permanent space at a venue in Round Top. After organizing a series of pop-ups, she is now looking for local stores to carry her pieces, as she has already built a national online customer base. She points to Fort Worth’s The Worthy Co. and Hale House as two early supporters that have recently featured her jewelry and accessories.

Even with two successful years behind her, she says she still has much to learn and more connections to make.

“These pieces are absolute heirlooms,” she says. “They are something you can pass down to your children or grandchildren because you’re wearing literal history.”