Western wear

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gene Autry in the western wear typical of the singing cowboys of the 1950s. Note the characteristic piped, arrowhead-end "smile" pockets, broad open shirt collar, pointed shirt yoke, neckerchief or bandana, and cowboy hat.

Western wear is a category of men's and women's clothing which derives its unique style from the clothes worn in the 19th-century American West.

Western wear ranges from accurate historical reproductions of pioneer, mountain man, Civil War, cowboy and vaquero clothing to the stylized garments popularized by singing cowboys such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers in the 1940s and '50s.

The most elaborate western wear is the custom work created by rodeo tailors such as Nudie Cohn, which is characterized by elaborate embroidery and rhinestone decoration. (See also Nudie suit.) This type of western wear, popularized by country music performers, is the origin of the phrase rhinestone cowboy.

[edit] Further reading

100 Years of Western Wear by Tyler Beard and Jim Arndt (Photographer), Gibbs Smith Publishers (1993), ISBN 0-87905-591-X.
How the West Was Worn by Holly George-Warren and Michelle Freedman, Harry N. Abrams (2001), ISBN 0-8109-0615-5.