_scaled_45_30.jpg "June Events 2010")
Fashion
Great Movie Hats
- Published May 15, 2012
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
Movies both reflect cultural trends and influence them. The hats worn by cowboys in countless Western movies and television shows were and are often symbolic of the characters wearing them.
How to Make A Character Hat
- Published May 14, 2012
- Written by TW Editors
For every Roy Rogers, Gene Autry or James Arness in their perfectly blocked, spotless hero hats, there is a Gabby Hayes, Slim Pickens or Ken Curtis in sweat-stained, broke-ass hats riddled with bullet holes.
Woolies & Chinks
- Published April 26, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
For all its gritty Old West authenticity, the Coen brothers’ 2010 movie version of Charles Portis’s book True Grit includes some near misses, time wise.
From Vaqueros to Buckaroos
- Published April 16, 2012
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
“He is ever a picturesque figure, whether in groups or dismounted and standing alone on the great prairie, watching the train flash past him, broad-hatted and clad in buckskin pants, with many little fringes down their seams.”
– Lee C. Harby passage accompanying Remington’s Mexican Buckaroo in Texas illustration in the July 1890 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine
True Fit
- Published March 29, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
Y'know, my python boot is too tight, I couldn't get it off last night.
A week went by, and now it's July. I finally got it off, and my girlfriend cried,
"You got Stink-Foot! Stink-Foot, darlin'! Your Stink-foot puts a hurt on my nose!"
—"Stink-Foot" by Frank Zappa
Head Over Heels
- Published March 13, 2012
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
“These boots are made for walking, and that’s just what they’ll do.
Cowboys & Steampunkers
- Published February 22, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
Inspired by the Victorian era of buttoned-up gentility and amazing new mechanical inventions, Steampunk designers seek to rekindle a sense of awe and romance in an otherwise sterile and detached digital world.
Fake or Real?
- Published January 10, 2012
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
“The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.” –Salvador Dalí
Sweethearts of the Rodeo
- Published January 11, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
Eschewing the bustle for the hustle, rodeo cowgirls donned long, wide-legged split skirts and modified bloomers (the latter was first adapted by trick rider and bulldogger Tillie Baldwin).
Ponchos Ride Again
- Published November 08, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
“Is that a real poncho?… I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?” —”Camarillo Brillo” by Frank Zappa
Buckles: The Cowboy Calling Card
- Published November 09, 2010
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
Out West, the belt buckle’s significance reaches beyond its functionality of keeping your pants from sagging.
Artistas & Fashionistas
- Published October 05, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
Western style, like Western art, is largely indefinable, but always recognizable.
Outerwear Out West
- Published October 06, 2010
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
"A genuine mountaineer is a...kind of sui genus, an oddity, both in dress, language and appearance, from the rest of mankind."
Boot Scoot & Boogie
- Published August 28, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
Long Ike and Sweet Betsey attended a dance.
The Victorian Influence
- Published August 31, 2010
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
"I bought some new clothes and got [my] picture taken....
Medicine Bags to Purses
- Published July 28, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
“In the bag,” he said as he opened it and removed two objects, “is the broken shell of the iron kettle, a pebble from the butte, and a piece of the sacred sage.”
The Genesis of Jeans
- Published July 27, 2010
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
"I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes."
-Yves Saint Laurent, Fashion Designer
The Fabric of the West
- Published June 27, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
Blue jeans have been described as “democracy in fashion,” and rightly so.
The Functional Side of Cowboy Boots
- Published June 29, 2010
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
All the men were well shod in good looking riding boots, except the cook. I learned that the boots were mostly made by a boot maker named Hyer, of Olathe, Kansas, and were generally black in color. All had seventeen inch tops, with a two or two and a half inch heel, slanted well forward, so that the weight of the foot came forward of the heel, and consequently the stirrup was held under the arch of the rider's instep, as it should be."
—John K. Rollinson, in his 1941 memoir, Pony Trails In Wyoming: Hoofprints of a Cowboy and U.S. Ranger
Cowgirls in the Sand
- Published May 24, 2011
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
The idea of cowgirls in the sand was once just a fever dream Neil Young had about beaches in Spain—that was his explanation for the creation of one of his best known songs from his 1969 sophomore solo album, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.
What to Wear This Summer
- Published May 24, 2010
- Written by G. Daniel DeWeese
I wear a sombrero, silk neckerchief, fringed buckskin shirt, sealskin chaparajos or riding trousers [sic]; alligator hide boots; and with my pearl hilted revolver and beautifully finished Winchester rifle, I shall feel able to face anything.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
