Cowboy hats: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and Pharrell Williams’ Louis Vuitton FW24 collection ride the Western trend, saddling up with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in Barbie, and Bella Hadid’s rodeo-chic
Yee-haw … 2024 is shaping up as the year of the cowboy. Specifically it is the year the cowboy hat gets its rightful place outside the rodeo (and particularly raucous hen’s nights and bachelorette parties).
Who is Beyoncé’s father and former Destiny’s Child manager, Mathew Knowles?
Hadid isn’t the only celebrity in on the trend. Hailey Bieber has worn a style from the buzzy Australian label Lack of Color, and Dua Lipa and Emily Ratajkowski are fans of Mexican designer Montserrat Messeguer. Perhaps there is no more famous cowboy hat brand right now than the Aspen-based Kemo Sabe – fans of its custom approach include Beyoncé, Shania Twain, various members of the Kardashian-Jenner family, Rihanna and Kevin Costner (who is of course no stranger to a cowboy hat thanks to his role as rancher patriarch John Dutton in Yellowstone).
According to Trendalytics, there has been a 400 per cent increase in social media chatter for cowboy hats compared to this time a year ago.
The Instagram account @databutmakeitfashion noted that “cowboy style” had been mentioned in four per cent of the top posts analysed.
That said, whether it’s writer and style icon Fran Lebowitz in her signature cowboy boots or quietly luxurious brands such as Lemaire subtly nodding to the cowboy aesthetic with turquoise embroidery, cowboy-influenced style will always have appeal.
How Tommy Hilfiger’s Hong Kong connection helped build the brand – interview
As Isha Nicole, creative director and senior vice-president of marketing for the Western wear company Boot Barn recently told Women’s Wear Daily, “Western is not a trend,” rather, “Western is an iconic American culture.”
Still, if you want to wear a cowboy hat, and you’re not in tobacco-spitting distance of a rodeo, you could opt for straw or raffia version from brands such as Lack of Color, Gigi Burris or Stetson themselves. It’s a hat tip to the look without it feeling like a costume, and works as well for a music festival, as a date in the city.
- Big hat names include Stetson; Lack of Color, worn by Hailey Bieber; and Kemo Sabe, stanned by everyone from Rihanna to Yellowstone’s Kevin Costner; while Dua Lipa and Emily Ratajkowski are fans of Montserrat Messeguer
- Pharrell looked west with his LV autumn-winter collection – cowboy vibes have also ridden the runway in Chanel’s pre-autumn 2022 collection, Schiaparelli’s spring/summer 2024 and in the Ralph Lauren and Naiomi Glasses collab