GO WEST , YOUNG WOMAN
There’s a country and western moment happening in London right now, and I have mixed feelings about it. As I write this, I’m staring at a flyer that arrived with my post for a line-dancing class of the boots-and-beer variety — happening in Southwark of all places! Meanwhile, my colleague Billie Bhatia, a longstanding fan of the Dixie Chicks, is trying to convert me to the cult of the cowboy boot, which has landed in Topshop, Zara and Asos in a bright red suede, hard-wearing black leather and swirling cactus print respectively.
I’ve never owned a pair, despite having spent the earliest years of my childhood in Texas, home of the Alamo, double denim, rodeos and chili con carne. When I was growing up in America, the sturdy cowboy boot was a signifier of many things: a love of horses, music that twangs, barbecue and, at times, dodgy politics. But never high fashion. And to many, that’s still the case.
So I found it mildly surprising last February to see them on the runway at Céline — in Paris, if you please! There they were on Selena Forrest’s feet, adding the sartorial exclamation mark to a Phoebe Philo’d version of a totally western look, complete with an oversized trench and leather bandana. It was a chic amalgamation of every western film I’ve ever seen — all three of them. Selena was giving us Tombstone, The Hateful Eight and The Good, The
Bad And The Ugly by way of Left Bank cool, in a single runway moment. And it was oddly alluring.
Catwalk nods to the great American Wild West have been appearing with the abundance of a herd of cattle all year long. It started during the New York autumn shows, when Raf Simons kicked the week off with a collection that included metal-tipped boots and coats lined with homespun quilts. And the idea carried right through to Coach (Little House On The Prairie-style dresses), Kanye West’s Yeezy (ranch-hand denim and rodeo boots) and House of Holland (rodeo-show costumes by way of East London nights out), to name just a few.
Fashion’s infatuation with the theme grew even stronger during the resort season, with Moschino’s Jeremy Scott imagining a road trip through the fabled western highway Route 66, and Christian Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri setting her Georgia O’Keefe-inspired dresses among California’s canyons. And the idea steamed right into the spring/summer 18 shows where, yes, Simons continued his exploration of Americana via satin rodeo shirts and stiff double denim.
‘To me, the west coast is the most authentic slice of America — the east belonging much more to Europe,’ Scott says. ‘The west has the mix of country and western, as well as glamour and glitz, all served up with that American pioneer spirit that anything is possible if you just believe.’
Ida Petersson, womenswear buying director at Browns Fashion, echoes Scott’s sentiment: ‘With everything going on in the world, designers are exploring the past and reinventing it to showcase the new frontier. It does seem quite fitting that the “Wild West” has stuck around as a trend.’ Browns bought big into the idea, stocking up on not only Calvin Klein (‘My favourite was the head-to-toe denim,’ says Petersson), but also newer labels such as Ganni (‘I’ve already bought two pairs of their cowboy boots’) and Jessie Western jewellery (‘Now is the perfect time for this brand’).
Fashion designers apparently aren’t the only ones feeling the mood. Some of the music world’s biggest headlines at the moment are western related: Miley Cyrus has controversially dropped
‘There’s a familiarity in the spirit of the Wild West that most of us can identify with: a sense of the great unknown’
her hip hop act in favour of her country roots, while Shania Twain has just released her first album in 15 years. Speaking of countrymusic icons, Dolly Parton partnered with Kesha for a cover of her classic, Old Flames. And on the television front, The Coen brothers’ cowboy series The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is among Netflix’s biggest scheduled releases for 2018.
But why the love for this very specific strain of Americana now? It seems odd at a time when America is — how shall I put this? — not quite at its peak. Jeremy Scott chalks it up to a mix of wistfulness and political angst. ‘Today, some want to co-opt the [core values] of the tried and true, red, white and blue and attribute it to causes and beliefs that are anything but congruent with the way this country was founded and for what it stands,’ he says. Backstage at his show in June, he put it even more plainly, telling Women’s Wear Daily: ‘Is our America being lost by some psychopath?’
On the brighter side, you could also say there’s a familiarity in the spirit of the Wild West that most of us can identify with: a sense of the great unknown and a changing playing field. It’s the reason the Wild West has become one of the most used cultural metaphors for the internet age — no matter where you are in the world. In the past month alone, I’ve seen the phrase used to describe Spotify, the modern working world, Bitcoin and a post-Brexit Europe in some of the UK’s biggest newspapers.
On a less introspective, but no less influential note, the western trend makes for a new way to wear denim, a category that’s been on an upswing in recent seasons in reaction to the athleisure boom and is now worth roughly £43.5 billion.
The shapes of our jeans have evolved away from the skinny, which helped fuel the popularity of the ballerina flat and demure kitten heel, towards a straighter leg in a sturdier fabric, largely influenced by the likes of Vetements’ Demna Gvasalia, who showed cowboy leanings all the way back in his second ever collection in 2015, and Simons, who at Calvin Klein has reshaped the jeans we want to wear right now. And what better to wear with your new pair of true denim jeans than a stiff pair of cowgirl boots and a leather bandana? Minus the line dancing, and with just the right amount of French ennui, obviously.