Why Are Cowboys Trending in Fashion Right Now?

Fashion purveyors have discussed Raf Simons's reimagining of the American Wild West through Calvin Klein, as seen through its pointed-collar snap-flap breast pocket shirts and steel-toed cowboy boots, ad nauseum.

Luckily, a crop of new collections points to a new frontier for cowboy inspiration.

There are the gambler hats, bolo ties, and prairie dresses at Dior's Cruise 2018 collection, debuting at twilight in Calabasas, Calif.; showing for Fall 2018, Isabel Marant married leather and fringe on top and metal-toed thigh-highs down below; Most recently, Nicolas Ghesquière included cattleman's crease hats and blouses, knitted to look like woven rugs with Native American motifs, in Louis Vuitton's Cruise 2019 range.

And these are only three runway examples among dozens more, showing both in America and Europe, according to WGSN Catwalks Director Lizzy Bowring.

"This trend is not just sitting with American designers," Bowring tells Fashionista in an email. "Last season, Fall 2018, saw such European designers as Natacha Ramsay-Levi at Chloé, Max Mara, Ports 1961 and Versace all taking in some reference from Western ideas and infusing them into their collections. There were oversized blankets, pony-skin tops, fringed skirts — the iconic Western shirt detailed with piping or fringing or piecing and patching of garments to provide the consumer with individuality."

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Today, no matter where we come from, we’re all a bit American. Coca-Cola, Nike and Disney, blue denim, cowboys and roadside motels: these references are ingrained in the way people think, feel and consume worldwide. The references are universal and instantly recognizable, which makes them perfect working material for fashion brands.

Americana influences popped up in many SS18 collections, and they were overwhelmingly present in the recent FW18 men’s shows.

In Milan, Bella Hadid opened the Dsquared2 show wearing a denim shirt and red-and-black check cowboy jacket. An array of cowboy hats, string ties, studded leather trousers and belts with huge buckles followed. In blue LED lights, it was not Americana of the prairies, but Americana of the mall, which celebrated big money, reality TV and shameless consumption. The Dsquared2 collection was the tip of the iceberg in fashion’s current obsession with the cultural codes and myths of the USA. Whether it’s American tragedy, American horror story or American dream, everyone wants a piece.

America is the epicenter of mass culture. Its culture and aesthetics have been copied and reproduced so widely and so badly that they are rarely considered high brow — which makes them highly relevant in an era when bad taste makes good fashion.

But in fact, it’s not always the case, and one of the most poignant examples of the trend is exactly the opposite. Raf Simons’s work for Calvin Klein is built entirely on visual tropes of U.S. culture, with its shiny surface and underlying darkness. Simons’ collections for the brand featured modernist versions of sheriff shirts, blood-stained cowboy boots and plastic coats, which simultaneously channeled Twin Peaks, American Psycho, and plastic-wrapped couches. The designer also tapped into the history of violence in American art and film, by using prints of Andy Warhol’s “Knives,” “The Ambulance Disaster” and “The Electric Chair,” and of Dennis Hopper counterculture classic Easy Rider.

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