{"id":82729,"date":"2023-10-28T15:40:17","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T15:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=82729"},"modified":"2023-10-29T14:41:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T14:41:00","slug":"horse-girl-fashion-cowbooy-boots","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/horse-girl-fashion-cowbooy-boots\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Her First Rodeo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Mane Event: Model\u00a0Nnyawurh Chuol walks\u00a0the Stella McCartney Fall\/Winter 2023 show in Paris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Words by Faran Krentcil<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Getty Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sarah Miller was confused. The thoroughbred horse trainer was on a European vacation\u2014a far cry from her working farm in rural Virginia\u2014and couldn\u2019t wait to visit the equestrian fashion mecca Herm\u00e8s. Miller watched as a woman grabbed a $1,800 blanket, whipped out her credit card, and announced to the Berlin boutique that it was for her mare.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I was intrigued!\u201d Miller says. \u201cIt\u2019s a small industry. Maybe I knew the horse! But when I asked the woman what kind she had, she totally froze up. She was like, \u2018Um, a brown one.\u2019 A brown one?! Come on.\u201dWhen Miller introduced herself as an actual horse pro, the woman admitted the purchase wasn\u2019t for her animal\u2014it was for her couch. \u201cI guess that\u2019s a good thing,\u201d Miller says. \u201cA horse would not enjoy an Herm\u00e8s blanket. It would be a real waste of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller had stumbled into the middle of fashion\u2019s current rodeo obsession, where function rides sidesaddle to form, and everyone wants to be part of the mane event\u2014but sometimes only on Instagram. \u201cIt started with Yellowstone, of course,\u201d explains ranch owner Abby Hirschi, who runs near-daily corrals at the Rock Branch Horse and Cattle Company near the Shenandoah Valley. \u201cWe\u2019d never had a show like Mad Men<\/em> that made our lives into must-see TV. It really started a stampede for the clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be fair, fashion has long been lassoed by the allure of the American West. (See also: the Midwest, South, Southwest, Northwest… basically, any wide-open space you can say you\u2019re\u00a0\u201cfrom\u201d without ever having to go back there once you grow up.) And many luxury labels have a legit claim to riding vibes. Herm\u00e8s began as a harness maker in 1837; Stetson began making riding hats 28 years later. By the time Ralph Lauren reined in his take on cowboy chic in the 1980s, the mythical freedom of heritage on horseback had firmly branded itself on fashion\u2019s flanks, with Dior launching its famous saddle bag in 1999 and Stella McCartney making Chloe\u2019s famous horse print dress in 2001.<\/p>\n

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Left: Diamond\u00a0Cross Ranch Tee; Right: Prada\u00a0Camperos Boots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Around the same time, former farm girl Luella Bartley named her buzzy debut fashion collection, \u201cDaddy, I Want a Pony.\u201d Her opening model was a former Brazilian teen trail rider named Gisele Bu\u0308ndchen. Besides the Rio bombshell, many other fashion muses have been hot\u00a0to trot. Goddess Edie Sedgwick was a California horse girl at her father\u2019s ranch before hoofing it to Max\u2019s Kansas City; supermodel Christy Turlington was scouted by a modeling agent while competing at a horse show in Miami. Ali Michael was a Texas showjumper before becoming a face of Calvin Klein, and even Bella Hadid was on the junior Olympic track for horseback riding before mounting a catwalk instead.<\/p>\n

But lately, the rodeo-to-runway pipeline is getting very crowded. Cowboy boots are becoming so ubiquitous on runways that even decidedly un-horsey brands like Prada and Givenchy make them; they\u2019ve also given rise to a \u201ccoastal cowgirl\u201d trend that combines the beachy netted dresses and ocean-bleached cutoffs of the Outer Banks cast with the weathered hats and carved leather belts of the Brokeback Mountain costume trailer. (The trend has nearly 200 million views on TikTok; by contrast, \u201conly\u201d 115 million people watched the 2023 Super Bowl.) Sales spiked so much at the cheeky Western footwear brand Paris Texas that this March, the label got acquired by the Brazilian megafirm Arezzo & Co. for a whopping $27 million. Meanwhile, Chanel\u2019s couture show ended with Princess Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco galloping past front row guests like Margot Robbie and Pharrell on her own Andalusian steed. (His name is Kuskus, and actually, random-woman-in-Herm\u00e8s, he is a brown one!).<\/p>\n

Currently, hair dye searches for \u201ccowgirl copper\u201d\u2014a maple red shade made popular by model Emily Ratajkowski\u2014are up 50 percent in Google\u2019s trend database. And of course, perennial horse girl Stella McCartney had seven ponies at her Fall 2023 catwalk show; models walked through barn muck past them. Now Kendall Jenner rides bareback through McCartney\u2019s fall fashion campaign. She is naked except for faux-pony skin boots and a matching purse.<\/p>\n

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Charlotte Casiraghi\u00a0at Chanel\u2019s Spring 2022 Couture show.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI actually love seeing models on horseback, as long as they can actually ride,\u201d says Rose Brown, whose family ranch breaks colts and wild mustangs that come from across the American Southwest. \u201cKendall Jenner is a very accomplished horseback rider. She\u2019s part of our community. She grew up doing it and it\u2019s clear she would never put the horse or anyone else in danger. She loves the horse and the horse loves her. That\u2019s fine!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually love seeing models on horseback, as long as they can actually ride … Kendall Jenner is a very accomplished horseback rider. She\u2019s part of our community.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cHonestly, I think posing on a horse like that looks like a blast,\u201d echoes Miller. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t change a thing. Kendall Jenner and Stella McCartney are real riders. It\u2019s more the girls in Nashville who wear barn gear to brunch, but it\u2019s spotless. You can tell they\u2019ve never been to a barn in their lives. My friends and I always have a giggle when we see them.\u201d Adds Hirschi, \u201cIn the beginning, everyone wanted to wear cowboy boots, and that was fine. It was fun! But then I started seeing influencers from Austin and Miami sponsored by [rodeo] gear companies even though it\u2019s clear they\u2019ve never raced or even rigged their own tack. And I was like, \u2018Wait. How is this happening?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Long may she rein: Horses at the Renaissance\u00a0tour.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The answer, in part, is Beyonc\u00e9. When the queen of basically everything began her sold-out Renaissance tour, stylist Shiona Turini created a series of show-stopping \u201cdisco cowboy\u201d looks by Gucci, Alexander McQueen, and PatBo, which the pop icon wears while dancing on a mirror encrusted horse sculpture. The effect paid homage to the \u201880s ballroom scene created by LGBTQ+ community leaders, along with Black rodeo riders and ranchers whose contributions to the American West and cowboy culture have long gone unacknowledged.<\/p>\n

The effect was cool as hell, and it was also deep with meaning. By fusing gay iconography and Black history into the notoriously white, conservative, Bible Belt mindset that often anchors ranching communities (and certainly drives their political votes), Beyonc\u00e9 and her image builders are saying the quiet part out loud: Riding culture and rodeo events may not have always welcomed those outside the mainstream, but they\u2019re part of the community patchwork that makes Western-wear look so good\u2026 sometimes literally.<\/p>\n

For instance, when Hailey Frederiksen became Miss Rodeo America in 2022, the Colorado roping queen chose to spotlight Fenty Beauty, the inclusive shade brand created by Rihanna and a team of Black beauty moguls, as she reigned across the Rocky Mountain rodeo circuit. \u201cI swear by this stuff,\u201d she vowed in her first official beauty video after winning the crown.<\/p>\n

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Best in Show: Cowboy\u00a0boots on catwalk attendees\u00a0in Paris and Copenhagen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been my go-to since I started competing [as a rodeo queen] three and a half years ago. It lasts through any weather. It is my number one.\u201d As the Southern rodeo circuit picks up this fall, barrel-racing women can sport a pair of daisy-embroidered boots from Genia Lee, a 40-year-old Mississippi native whose small business is the only cowboy cobbler owned by a Black woman in America. There\u2019s also been a push on social media to make the horse girl aesthetic more inclusive\u2014a mission that\u2019s dear to Canadian rider Jen Spencer. On her popular Instagram channel @BlackEquestrians<\/a>, she champions the rise of cowgirl style (\u201cfashion and horses\u2014what more do you need?!\u201d) as long as it includes all<\/em> the cowgirls.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEveryone wants to be part of the mane event \u2014 but sometimes only on Instagram.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to Hirschi, true \u201ccowgirl chic\u201d should also reflect the reality of working with horses. \u201cIf you want to wear a cowboy boot, it shouldn\u2019t have a zipper,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s going to damage your tack.\u201d Hirschi doesn\u2019t mind the bedazzled and floral embroidered boots by cool-girl labels like Ganni and its untouchable older sister The Row. \u201cRodeo queens wear embellished cowboy boots all the time. It\u2019s part of the culture and it\u2019s wonderful.\u201d But if you\u2019re going to buy them, try to opt for American-made footwear that\u2019s already supporting the small family farms and ranches that uphold key slabs of the country\u2019s economy. Some to try: The female founded label Miron Crosby, the Montana-based Babione Wilson, and the Dallas brand Kat Mendenhall\u2014the cobbler makes entirely vegan versions of her grandpa\u2019s favorite rodeo boots. There\u2019s also Lucchese, the heritage boot brand that\u2019s been a cowboy sole mate since 1883. Experienced riders and ranchers favor them; so do Texas-bred designers like Brandon Maxwell, who collaborated with the label for his 2018 collection and made custom pairs for Karlie Kloss and Gigi Hadid.<\/p>\n

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Staud x Wrangler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for \u201ccowgirl\u201d denim, American Eagle is a popular pick, thanks to its bootleg cut that actually accommodates a proper cowboy boot and spurs. Rodeo riders like Rookie Cowgirl of the Year Kortnee Solomon favor Wrangler\u2019s Riding Jean, which features a higher waist and wider leg, when training and competing, though the brand\u2019s Cowboy Cut jeans is preferred while doing stable duty because it can be tucked into a Blundstone boot when mucking stalls or hauling feed. To merge the spirit of the rodeo with her homeland of Rodeo Drive, Hollywood princess Sarah Staudinger of Staud recently collaborated with Wrangler, too, on a line of blue jean basics that \u201care timeless but feel fresh.\u201d They are modeled by a woman with\u2014yes\u2014 \u201ccowgirl copper\u201d hair.<\/p>\n

Speaking of hair, the longtime beauty myth that Mane \u2018n\u2019 Tail horse shampoo\u2014a formula created at the Straight Arrow ranch in rural New Jersey circa 1970\u2014still holds sway. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Sarah Jessica Parker are reportedly fans of the strengthening spray and conditioner\u2026as are ranchers, cowgirls, and horse trainers around the country. \u201cIt really does work,\u201d says Miller. \u201cI also use some skin cream that\u2019s meant for the horses when I need a cut or blemish to heal quickly,\u201d she says, \u201cbut you can only get it from a horse vet.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the stable gates can still gatekeep some things in Horse Girl World\u2026 but some barns are taking the reins back from the fashion scene, and making their own merch to ride the trend. At Diamond Cross Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, designer Kirby Lindley\u2014a former Miss Teen Texas who\u2019s now married to 4th\u00a0<\/sup>generation rancher Luke Long\u2014 creates graphic tees, knitwear, and work shirts based on her own daily stable gear. Pieces cost $48\u2014$98, and Lindley is fine if you wear her pullovers without pulling your quivering body onto an actual horse. \u201cBut you should sometime,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read GRAZIA USA<\/em>\u2019s Fall Issue<\/a> featuring cover star Ziwe\u00a0Fumudoh<\/a>:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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