When pioneers headed West, they had to adapt their clothing to the new unchartered environs they found themselves in. They also picked up new designs, noticed in some natives’ beaded and buckskin garments.
Their fashions are so timeless that pocket watches worn by the likes of the Wild Bunch remain stylish choices for dressed-up gents, plain and embellished cowboy boots still put some swagger in our steps and the cowboy vest is a quintessential Western look, for both men and women. Whether your getup is designed for function or as a nod to tradition, you have a plethora of choices from designers of all kinds, creating period and contemporary looks inspired by the Old West.
***Best of the West Western Wear 2014***
Best Western Bootmaker
Editor’s Choice: Lucchese, El Paso, TX
Reader’s Choice: M.L. Leddy’s in Fort Worth, TX
•••
Best Western Hatmaker
Editor’s Choice: Greeley Hat Works, Greeley, CO
Reader’s Choice: Baldwin’s Custom Hat Co., Sisters, OR
and Limpia Creek Hats, Fort Davis, TX
•••
Best Western Clothing Maker
Editor’s Choice: Miller Ranch, Denver, CO
Reader’s Choice: Wrangler, Greensboro, NC
•••
Best Period Western Clothing Maker
Editor’s Choice: Old Frontier Clothing, Los Angeles, CA
Reader’s Choice: Scully Oxnard, CA
Photo Gallery
Looking typical of wealthy Californio landowners in the 1800s, this meticulously dressed gentleman wears a white suit with natty touches that include his pristine sombrero charro, a pinned cravat, watch fob and pearl-handled pistol in its embellished holster.
– Courtesy Robert G. McCubbin Collection –
Who could imagine Calamity Jane without her buckskins? In fact, this image of her, originally taken around 1876 in Deadwood, South Dakota, is so often the one most folks conjure when they hear her name, that seeing her in a dress (and she has worn them in plenty of photos) seems strange!
– Courtesy Robert G. McCubbin Collection –
This 1887 photograph is labeled as depicting Fred Pierce, a Wyoming cowboy, but he does not show up in the Wyoming census. Some think this cowboy resembles Fletcher Fairchild, a member of Yavapai County Sheriff John Mulvenon’s posse, which was sent in 1887 to intervene in Arizona’s Pleasant Valley War.
– Courtesy Robert G. McCubbin Collection –
When George Custer went on a buffalo hunt with Buffalo Bill Cody and Russia’s Grand Duke Alexis in 1872, he looked handsome and dashing in his fringed buckskins and trademark red kerchief.
– True West archives –
Victorian fashion for ladies emphasized the waistline in various ways, including via a sash tied with a bow in the back. In this photo, Mrs. Luke Short draws attention to her waist with a Scottish-inspired tartan sash. Hattie Beatrice Buck was only 29 years old when her gunfighter husband died. You can learn all about the stylish Hattie and her celebrated husband in a new Luke Short biography, by Jack DeMattos, available in bookstores in 2014.
– True West Archives –
Donning long, wide-legged split skirts, rodeo cowgirls Dorothy Morrell, Vera McGinnis and Edythe Sterling busted Victorian modesty wide open.
– True West archives –
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