Evolution of cowboy style —PHOTOS
December 13, 2014 - 7:00 pm
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A snap button shirt is seen in the Rock & Roll Cowboy booth on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014 during the Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center.The clothing company caters to the younger consumer. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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A pair of Roper Starlight boots at Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014. The company unveiled the motion activated lighted boots at this year's show. The boots retail for $149.95.(Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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Danielle Varney, left, and Cody Miller looks at purse straps in the Two Bar West booth on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014 during the Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center.Varney, a life long horse rider from Phoenix, said her style goes from causal to western wear.(Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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Custom designed belts is seen in the Cowgirl Glitter booth on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014 during the Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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A reflection of Ted Taylor while he tries on a frock in The Frontier Clothing Company booth on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014 during the Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center. The company specializes in Victorian style custom made western wear.(Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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Jay Palm, owner of Jay Palm's Saddle Shop, steams a Resistol cowboy hat during the Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014. He said his independent western store in Petaluma, Cal. provides costumer service.(Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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The soles of the Diamond Plate boots at the Tin Haul booth during the Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014. The boots retail for $346.49.(Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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Las Vegan Gundi Commins looks at a pair of Roper boots at Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014. Commons originally from Germany has been wearing western wear for years.(Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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Canadian Don Peterson wears Wrangler jeans at Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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Canadian Don Peterson wears Wrangler jeans at Cowboy Christmas Gift show in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Tuesday, Dec. 9,2014. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
With National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas just completed, many of the boots, giant belt buckles and cowboy hats will be headed home.
But Deirdre Clemente, an associate professor of history at UNLV and an American fashion expert, says there is a history behind the look.
American culture first started paying attention to Western wear during the 1930s.
“It was a time when a lot of middle-class families would take vacations out West,” she says. “They would visit dude ranches and it was the first time men and women would wear jeans.”
Concurrently, the movie industry had grown enthralled with Western movies, which Clemente says stoked the fashion’s rise.
“We all think New York when we think ‘garment industry,’ but California was a powerhouse, and L.A. the center,” she notes.
Supply for Western wear eventually met demand, Clemente adds. People were now seeing it in catalogs.
Even if people were on the East Coast, she says the fashion was used in other ways such as themed parties.
Though Westerns aren’t the trend in movies today, their influence has left a mark.
But it has transformed to be updated.
“Now we have Western wear on acid,” Clemente says. “Today, designers from uber-American Ralph Lauren to the sunglassed Karl Lagerfeld, take inspiration in the West and distribute their interpretations on a global scale.”
She says it fits to have National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
“It is a unique art form to America,” she says. “It demonstrates how Las Vegas and the West played a role in shaping a unique fashion trend.”
Contact reporter Michael Lyle at mlyle@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5201. Follow @mjlyle on Twitter.