There’s no shortage of Wild West movies and TV shows out there. My parents in particular are big fans of Bonanza and The Rifleman, so I’m no stranger to the American frontier as it appears on the silver screen. Of course, the costumes worn by John Wayne and James Arness are often pretty far removed from actual old west garments.

Even though they may not match our mental pictures of Western style, the clothes of the old west were still fascinating and unique. They made a small comeback in the 1970s, what with all the suede and fringe, but there’s so much more inspiration to be found beyond stetsons and cowboy boots. 

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Old West Fashion Overview:

First off, let’s pin down what we mean by Old West, since the beginning and end of the era is super vague. For, instance the town of Independence, Missouri was founded as early as 1827, and the last stagecoach robbery happened as late as 1916. But since the American Civil War ended in 1865, I’m mostly going to focus on the American West post-war. 

That aside, we should also differentiate the Old West from the Wild West. Westerns, as a genre, popularized the idea of the Wild West, as they offered such a romanticized idea of the frontier, where the cowboy or gunslinger was a knight-like figure who fought outlaws and saved damsels in distress. Of course, most ideas about the Wild West are pure myth: Native Americans rarely clashed with settlers, bank-robbers were few and far between, and the American ideal of the cowboy was preceded by the Mexican vaquero by some 200 years.