On a chilly winter day in 2021, local musician and apparel designer Paige Plaisance walked into South Austin honky-tonk Sagebrush wearing a thick fur coat, prompting the guy behind the bar to quip about her being ready for the runway. “It dinged in my head,” she remembers. “We’re going to have a fashion show in here.”
Plaisance’s brand, Ramblin’ Rose Co., had a trailer in front of the venue, but this was a chance to showcase her work—and that of other up-and-coming Austin designers—in a new light. Honky Tonk Catwalk was born.
Picture Austinites clad in boots and pearl snap shirts hootin’ and hollerin’ as models styled in cowboy couture looks strut to classic country songs. Plaisance’s concept was a success from the start, and it has become an utter sensation with sellout events at Sagebrush. “Austin is such a stylish city,” she says. “My vision was to bring these creative arts together, from the clothing makers to the music to the people in town that love getting dressed up.”
Her key partners in the endeavor are Western wear makers Ben and Bonnie Kennimer, whose eponymous brand opened a brick-and-mortar in the Crestview neighborhood in 2024. The designers made their New York Fashion Week debut this year, proving that Lone Star style has the rapt attention of a global audience.
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