About Us.
Our Story and How Penn & Fletcher Began
About Penn & Fletcher.
While art embroidery is old, Penn & Fletcher is relatively new. The company was formed in 1986 by two designers, Andrew B. Marlay and Ernest A. Smith, from the remnants of older embroidery studios. The roots of the company, much of the equipment and the embroidery heritage it maintains primarily dates back to the Brody Embroidery Company, established in 1921. With a large collection of French hand-guided embroidery machines, the earliest one dating back to 1878, the artisans at Penn & Flettcher create magic.
Penn & Fletcher is one of the few embroidery companies left in New York City but thriving because of passion and quality. The company is renowned among prominent designers and unparalleled by any other embroiderer in the city because of its broad spectrum of work from Broadway, opera, ballet TV and film to historic homes and museums to interiors of homes and yachts, and to advertising and fashion.
Meet Ernie.
Ernie Smith, Founder & President
From the 1920s through the late 1950s, there were more than 300 American custom embroidery companies in Manhattan. Brody Embroidery was one of the best of them. In 1983, our owner, Ernie Smith, met master embroiderer Sidney Schroeger, owner of Brody which had become the in-house embroidery department at Eaves-Brooks Costume. Fascinated by Schroeger's turn-of-the-century embroidery machines, Ernie began studying embroidery under his tutelage. Eventually Ernie left his career as a theatrical scenery, costume and lighting designer and became an embroiderer.
Founded in 1986, Penn & Fletcher is a custom embroidery company dedicated to creating unique embroideries and to providing employment for needlework artisans in New York City. Ernie is the recipient of the 2017 Irene Sharaff Award through the Theatre Development Fund for his achievements as an artisan.