From buckskin and fringe to denim and rhinestones, a wide range of materials and styles has come to represent clothing of the American West. Distinctive Western dress not only sets the region apart from other areas of the country but “dressing Western” also symbolizes American values and attitudes around the world. Primary among these values is the idea of “rugged individualism,” associated with American character. More than any other style, Western wear evokes feelings of being wild and strong, unique and independent. In viewing How the West Was Worn, you will see eighty-three examples of Western clothing and costume staged in four chronological galleries, from the 1820s to the present. Each gallery displays how fashion connects working Westerners, entertainment celebrities, and consumers of Western wear. How the West Was Worn traces the development of Western style from its nineteenth-century frontier roots to the haute couture of runways in New York and Paris.

Gene Autry Stage Outfit, 1940s Autry Museum of Western Heritage Donated by Mr. and Mrs. Gene Autry

Dressing Western

Whether as whole outfits or as small touches and embellishments, Western-style clothing and adornments have been worn with pride by cowboys, celebrities, and the general public. What makes clothing and accessories seem “Western”? Why do tall leather boots and denim shirts suggest cowboys and the West? How do Western hats, pearl button snaps, and bolo string ties convey notions of real cowboys as well as wannabe dudes at country music concerts? How the West Was Worn explores the sources of Western fashion and the evolution of Western designs.

Cowboy Outfit, c. 1935 Autry Museum of Western Heritage Shirt and boots donated by Floyd Stillings Jeans courtesy of Jeff Spielberg, Santa Monica, California

Frontiers and Fringe

Environment, culture, occupation, practical utility, and desire for status all contributed to the identity formation and evolution of Western fashion in the nineteenth century. Buckskin and fringe became solidly associated with frontiersmen, celebrities, and Westerners. As symbols of wildness, buckskin and fringe came to define Westerners to those learning about the region and its people. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and other Western shows introduced large audiences around the world to authentic American Indians, frontier scouts, explorers, Mexican vaqueros, and American cowboys, figures that are still associated with the West to this day. Clothing and shapes associated with frontiersmen and cowboys have continuously influenced public perceptions of the West and Westerners.

Frontiersman’s Outfit, c. 1820 Autry Museum of Western Heritage

Real Cowboys, Movie Stars, and Dudes

After 1900, urbanization and mechanization thinned the ranks of working cowboys. Some of those remaining began riding herd on a new breed: Eastern tourists who came west by rail for dude ranch vacations at authentic Western locales. To avoid looking like dudes, most new Westerners relocating to Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, and other growing cities adopted clothing styles suitable to the urban fashions of the day. Most people did not wear traditional Western dress, except perhaps when visiting rural areas of the region or while being entertained. However, many people enjoyed seeing Western styles in a fantasy context. Motion pictures reinforced popular literature and Wild West shows in fostering public perceptions and the popularity of Western fashion. People enjoyed seeing movie star cowboys dressed in elaborate Western costumes. It is generally believed that over-sized cowboy hats, fancy shirts, outlandish chaps, and pointed-toe cowboy boots were pure Hollywood invention. By the Great Depression of the 1930s, America’s fantasy Western past, represented by movie star cowboys sporting celebrity styles, reached new heights of popularity.

Buck Jones, Cowboy Movie Star, c. 1925 Autry Museum of Western Heritage Acquisition made possible in part by Mrs. Buck Jones Shirt donated by the family of Gene Bear

Rodeo Riders, Honky-Tonk Heroes, and Little Buckaroos

Movie star cowboys remained enormously popular from the 1930s through the 1960s. The new medium of television also adopted Western themes as mainstays of programming, yielding an abundance of television idols for a new generation known today as “baby boomers.” Added into the mix were a host of singing cowboys, honky-tonk heroes, and country music superstars, all riding the trendy cowboy image to new heights of fame and fortune as recording artists and performers. Real cowboys became increasingly rare during the period. The best joined a circuit of rodeo riders when they were not working their own little spreads or on one of many large Western ranches. Some became wildcatters, finding work in the oil industries that replaced stock-raising on the plains and prairies of Texas, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. For the public, television was the biggest new thing. Kids across the nation and around the world joined clubs and donned playsuits, adopting the personas of favorite TV characters. Big kids fancied their own opportunities for escapism in the new Western resorts, such as Reno, Nevada, and Tucson, Arizona, that catered to automobile tourists. Each decade brought increasing levels of refinement and broader acceptance of Western fashion.

Annie Oakley Playsuit, c. 1960 Autry Museum of Western Heritage Neckerchief donated by Mr. William David (Bill) Lane

Rebels, Reagan, and the Runways of Paris

By the late 1960s, big-budget Hollywood Westerns had reached the end of the trail. Many baby boomers rebelled against the values championed by their favorite Western models on TV; however, a new generation of movie stars as well as recording artists emerging from the Los Angeles folk music scene returned to the roots of Western style by embracing buckskin and fringe designs. Representative of wildness and defiance, independence and self-governance, buckskin and fringe fashions were thought to symbolize genuine American values, before the era of rhinestone cowboys. Traditional cowboy clothiers relocated from Hollywood to Nashville, where cowboy fashions flourished among country-and-western musicians promoting images of God and patriotism through their music and Western styles.

In the 1980s, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose administration was characterized by “cowboy diplomacy” and the end of the Cold War, Western fashion reached its apex on the runways of Paris and New York. An acceptance of Western fashion and its resurgence among international superstars followed the ascendancy of America as the most powerful nation in the world.

Western Wear: An American Folk Tradition

Western wear has come to represent America’s self-image on an international stage. From the uniforms chosen for the United States Olympic teams to the characteristic styles of Miss America, Western fashion has become the symbolic national folk costume of the United States. The cowboy image distinguishes America and Americans around the world. Rooted in the fundamental, historic American mythic conditions of “rugged individualism,” Western wear and the pioneers who made this style fashionable are the source of inspiration for those shaping American identity at home and abroad. The adoption of Western themes and fashions by performers—from Buffalo Bill to Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Porter Wagoner, Elton John, Clint Eastwood, and Madonna—is evidence for the stylistic, thematic developments that illustrate trends in American culture from frontier days to the present urban, postmodern era. Each example of use shows a different circumstance of the adoption of Western dress, a different subgenre. In turn, each modification of Western style has added to the tradition, enriching the repertoire of designs available for future possibilities in the evolution of America’s self-image. For festive events in the early 1970s, legendary Western designer Nudie Cohn wore this Stetson hat, radiating with rhinestones and embroidery.

Cowgirl rodeo outfit, worn by the respected and accomplished rodeo performer Bertha Blancett, c. 1925.

All photos by Susan Einstein.