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Clint Orms sees his Creations
not just as Belt Buckles but as
a Part of the Cowboy Tradition |
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 ou can stop by Clint Orms' west Houston workshop five days a week, and odds are Orms will be the one working with you to create your very own belt buckle. It might take the two of you a while to sketch out a design, but once you do, Orms and his staff of silversmiths and engravers will spend several days custom crafting this masterpiece, 'incorporating overlays and doing the kind of detail work that have green Lis belt buckles their wide renown.
The trick comes a few months later, when that buckle shows up on your front doorstep. Pay close attention as you open it up. Although it may look like the belt buckle you ordered, the truth is Orms didn't create it for You. Look closer at the feast of engraving, the overlays of green, yellow, and rose gold. Orms made that buckle for your children, and if you're lucky enough to be a grandparent, well, then he made it for your grandchildren as well, As the native Texan is wont to say, "they don't make them like they used to ... but we do. |
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This spring I went to Houston to visit this craftsman and his wife, Roxie. Fits workshop, which looks much like its office warehouse neighbors, can be identified by a blue door with a crooked front light and a shabby straw doormat. Inside, the small space is tidy and spare except for Orms' tools, drawers of silver, and a small library. Fifteen vintage cowboy hats hang on the wall and three pairs of old boots decorate a shelf. Country music hums in the background.
As I entered, the place was buzzing as eight people in swivel chairs hammered, carved, torched, and soldered silver, trying to keep up with increasing demand for this traditional silver-and-gold cowboy canvas. Orms was in the back room designing Roxie was up front answering phones. The simple, homegrown atmosphere made me feel like I'd stepped back in time onto an early Life magazine shoot.
While I waited to speak to the couple, I chatted with a well dressed gentleman purchasing a buckle for his collection. He believes a Clint Orms buckle is as essential to his dress as his Hermes tie, Patek Philippe watch, handmade Italian shoes, and some chic pair of silk boxers, whose labelÑsorryÑI didn't catch.
Orms is not forthcoming about his list of stylish clients, which reads like Who's Who in America. A tall, soft spoken man with large ears, Orms grew up a cowboy in Wichita Falls, Texas. His father, a cowboy and rodeo judge as a young man, worked in western clothing, designing and marketing high quality products. Orms grew up dressing well. "As kids we always got the samples:" Orms says. "That's all we had in our closets. We dressed Western because dad sold it and we liked it. We always had great boots and great hats."
Orms' neighbors also took pride in their clothing. "We grew up in that part of Texas where people had their own hat shape; they were not buying pre-creased hats out of a box," he says. "When I was born my father worked at one of the first Western shops in Texas, The Cow Lot. Nat Flemming [founder] and the dependable staff took such pride in fitting each person, making sure each customer walked away with an item that fit nor only their foot, head, cut, but also their personality and style."
Following in the footsteps of his family Orms entered the Western fashion business in high school and started making hand-tooled leather belts. He sold them to a few cowboy shops but soon decided to make something that would endure. "The belts were just going to wear out and get thrown away," he says. So Orms went to work for Western sculptor and saddlemaker Buck Brumley, who gave Orms and his best Friend, Bret Collier. Says Orms "Brett ended up running Big Bend Saddlers out in Alpine and I've got a pretty good business here an Houston, So I guess Buck should get credit for getting our careers going." Besides his polishing chores, Orms made a few buckles, which he carried in a jeweler's briefcase and sold to his teachers and his friend's parents.
While discussing those days Orms mentions that he grew up competing in rodeo. When I ask him in what event he says demurely "I just rode bulls." Of rodeo Orms says "I could never make a living at it," Instead he apprenticed with four different silver designers throughout the west. Orms learned the necessary skills. he says. But most of his education came from studying vintage buckles as well antique silver teapots, flatware, gambling chips, and Victorian jewelry.
Being able to grow up in Texas and see a lot of old classic buckles that grandparents were wearing inspired me." he says. "It was fun to see their grandchildren treat buckles with respect. I'd see grandparents giving their grandchildren cars and buckles but they treated the buckles with more respect than the car. They never planned on keeping the car but they weren't weren't about to trade their grandfathers belt buckle in."
To the untrained eve, a Clint Orms buckle is at first overwhelming with its detailed engraving with green, yellow, and rose gold. Images of longhorns, flowers with ruby centers, horseshoes, twists of rope, symmetrical scrollwork, and stippled backgrounds add to their sumptuous appeal. |
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I wondered about the tradition of buckles and how Orms fit into this history. It seems the Western buckle was around before the turn of the 19th century when cowboys roaming the west looking for work purchased buckles saddle shops or spur makers. Buckles were given as prizes in rodeo as early as 1913, when "America's First Cowgirl," Lucille Muhill" walked away with a silver oval buckle featuring the words "Champion Steer Roper."
Famous silversmith Edward Bohlin, who worked out West as a cowboy, was one of the most recognized names in Western silversmithing in the 1930s and the 1940s. While creating a tradition of glitzy western gear, he delighted in making well-made items for the working cowboy and cowgirl.
For Bohlin, quality was paramount. Orms believes this, too, and with a larger variety of tools and a wealth of talent, he can create buckles that surpass his predecessors in quality. His success seems to to stem from his pride. "I want people to know that they are getting a part of Texas, a part of a good, hard day's work," he says. "If you put your best work into a piece, people are going to feel it forever. They may never own a cow or ranch land, but they will feel the values of the west, an image and heritage that is needed in todays society."
While the stylish Queen Noor of Jordan wears Clint Orms, as do Tommy Hilfiger and Tiger Woods, Orms still caters working folk. "Cowboys come up to us with drawings they have been hanging onto for years," Orms' wife, Roxie, says. "They've saved their money and now they are ready to buy a buckle and buy it forever. They want to be able to pass it down."
"Our main objective is to keep ourWestern Heritage alive," Clint Adds "We're not about to turn a fast dollar." From his simple shop, he concludes in his polit Texas Drawl, Wearing a fine buckle is just part of dressing well." |
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