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The cowboy boot is a timeless footwear classic—one that reaches across geographies, generations, and styles. From rodeo enthusiasts at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo or the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, to models on the runways of Milan and Copenhagen (see Emma Chamberlain in Ganni’s Western-inspired boots at the brand’s spring 2023 show), to wedding guests and concertgoers, the boot’s wearers transcend subcultures and settings. As one of the cornerstones of Westernwear, it has become a staple of Americana. Equal parts workwear and celebratory attire—and in recent years a declaration of personal style—the cowboy boot continues to inspire. But what gives it such lasting appeal? Why do pop stars, designers, and everyday wearers alike keep returning to it, reinventing it, and re-admiring it?
Practicality is part of the answer. The cowboy boot was, first and foremost, a tool—a piece of gear built for labor and life on horseback. “The cowboy boot traces back to the late 1400s, when the Spanish brought cattle ranching—and with it the culture and clothing of horsemanship—to the Americas,” Sonya Abrego, fashion historian and author of Westernwear: Postwar American Fashion and Culture, tells Vogue. “Its design was practical: a sturdy riding boot with a small heel to secure the foot in the stirrup, a tapered toe for ease, and a high shaft to protect the leg. Western bootmaking developed out of this tradition, moving north from Mexico into what became the U.S., where by the 19th century it evolved into both functional gear for working cowboys and finely crafted leatherwork for elite ranchers. Over time the boot became inseparable from the mythology of the American West—rugged individualism, frontier spirit—and transformed from regional style to national symbol.”
That mythology has had countless revivals in fashion. Americana resurfaces every few years, from Ralph Lauren’s enduring Western references to Marc Jacobs’s 1992 Perry Ellis show, where Naomi Campbell stormed the runway in a pair of black cowboy boots. The same year Thierry Mugler unveiled his iconic Western-themed collection, complete with cowgirl chaps and heeled booties modeled by nightlife icon Connie Fleming. Raf Simons’s tenure at Calvin Klein 205W39NYC offered another influential reimagining, with sharp steel-toed iterations in patent crimson, aqua, and gold. More recently brands from Isabel Marant and Schiaparelli to Khaite and Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton menswear have all taken their turn with the cowboy boot.
Pop culture has been just as pivotal to the boot’s evolution. The boot is immortalized in images of Marlon Brando, Dolly Parton, and Jimi Hendrix; in the art of Andy Warhol, Ernie Barnes, and Billy Schenck; and in the wardrobes of 2000s music festival fixtures like Vanessa Hudgens—dubbed the “queen of Coachella”—and Kendall Jenner, who became somewhat synonymous with denim cutoffs and boots in the 2010s. This October Jenner and Gigi Hadid, lifelong friends and current Vogue cover stars, embody the modern Western spirit in an editorial complete with horses and boots. Taylor Swift, meanwhile, has made the silhouette a core part of her on- and offstage wardrobe (like the Louboutin cowboy boots and Kansas City Chiefs leather jacket she wore last year to support her fiancé Travis Kelce), from her early country days to her Eras Tour. Let us not forget the impact of Beyoncé’s tour de force, Cowboy Carter—it was a global retail phenomenon that sent boots flying off shelves and online stockists.
Lucchese, the 142-year-old Texas bootmaking institution, was among the most in-demand labels during that surge. Founded in 1883 by Sicilian immigrants, the brand has fitted everyone from U.S. presidents and movie stars to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. And there’s a reason why so many people seek the boots out. “They’re made the same way they’ve been made for generations. We haven’t changed that,” Doug Hogue, vice president of product at Lucchese, tells Vogue. Each boot is still crafted by 180 to 200 artisans in a meticulous, hands-on process. “You could wear our boots at the rodeo; working on the ranch, how they were originally designed; or wear them from a fashion perspective or a style perspective,” Hogue says. That adaptability, he notes, is what makes them timeless.
For Westernwear influencer Justina Sharp, cowboy boots are more than utility. “Cowboy boots are art,” she says. “And when you start to get into a certain level of cowboy boots, you start looking for things in the craftsmanship of the boot that really tells you something about the boot and the person.” To legions of diehard cowboy boot aficionados, the shoe is exactly that: an artisanal moniker of craftsmanship, with different stitching, shaft heights, toe shape, materials, etc.
A visit to the Lucchese factory in El Paso, Texas, offers a rare glimpse into cowboy boot production. Each pair blends old-world craftsmanship and modern precision: Hides are carefully matched, cut with steel-rule dies, and hand-stitched into intricate patterns. Uppers are hand-lasted, with some pairs fully tooled by hand—each one unique—and then stained to a finish that ranges from soft matte to high-gloss, each with its own patina.
“We don’t build our boots in big batches; we build them one at a time,” explains Hogue. “Each order comes through as a single ticket, and every boot is made individually. If you walked our factory floor, even in a group of boots being made, no two would be the same.” Drawing inspiration from Lucchese’s rich archives, the team is constantly experimenting with new finishing techniques and material pairings to push the cowboy boot forward. “There aren’t many new exotics coming to the market,” Hogue adds. “There’s a lot of conversation that’s involved in this. We do a lot of recycling of our raw materials, so we focus on mixing, matching, and reimagining what’s possible with the materials we do have.”
People get into cowboy boots for a myriad of reasons, but one common consensus is once you put on your first pair, you are forever changed. Sharp vividly recalls hers: “My first [were] a pair of purple Ariat boots when I was 10. I put those boots on and I remember feeling like, This is who I am. And since then, I’ve always loved cowboy boots.” The sense of personal connection runs deep among wearers. NYC-based stylist Mylo Jordan laughs about an old photo of himself: “I was probably four years old, in my dad’s cowboy boots. And now it’s literally the only thing I seem to wear.”
Legions of Texans, whether they’re still residing in the Lone Star State or have moved elsewhere, grew up with fond memories of the boot. For author and arts and culture editor Teri Henderson, who grew up in Texas, the boots are bound to identity. “Being a Black woman from Texas has informed moving around the world. The enduring appeal is tapping into our legacy, this lineage of Black cowboys. It’s a symbol of steadfastness, a symbol of community. I love how it’s a reclamation of symbols.”
Other Texans echo that sentiment. Joseph Hanson remembers his first boots and Texan Day, when schoolchildren came dressed to celebrate rodeo season and Texas pride runs especially deep. “It’s always a day where you put on your cowboy finery and come to school in your cowboy boots, your hat, belt buckle, jeans, and all of that,” he tells Vogue. “I grew so fast that we had to get new pairs every year.”
Visual artist and educator Shabez Jamal also links their love for cowboy boots to a sense of familial bonds. “My affinity for the cowboy boot stems from paying homage to my family roots in Mississippi,” they say. The cowboy boot is one of the most recognizable pieces of Western imagery, and with that often comes a lot of symbolism. “I grew up as a little queer kid in rural Ohio and didn’t always fit in with my country counterparts,” says Kaitlin Hatton. “Wearing the boots as an adult feels like a reclamation of my roots—as if I’m declaring that I did belong in my hometown all those years ago, that there are queer people in the country lifestyle, and that I have a right to wear them too.”
The cowboy boot, then, has become a canvas for expression. People style them in ways that reflect their identities: paired with dresses, denim, or even full Canadian tuxedos. “I style mine in a way that is true to me,” says publicist Chevy Wolf. “I love wearing thermals and 501s with my boots.” Hatton blends heavy metal and outlaw country, pairing lace skirts with boots, cropped tees, and chains. Stylist Shannon Stokes, who calls himself an “urban cowboy,” sees the boot as a marker of personal style: “It has so much range, from denim to a dressy trouser look. I love the twist it adds, as well as the clean line it creates when eliminating the break in a look that a sock and ankle shoe gives.”
Fashion may be cyclical, but the cowboy boot isn’t simply a trend. It’s history, utility, craft, and style distilled into one form. It’s as adaptable as it is enduring. The boot holds within it the myth and memory of the West, the resilience of workwear, and the self-expression of every wearer who pulls a pair on. And that’s why, no matter how many times Westernwear cycles back into fashion, cowboy boots never go out of style.