Once upon a time, in a place called the emerging United States, western wear was worn by those who were actually in need of it, and the rest of the country didn't much bother with it. It was, after all, called western apparel for a reason- that's what you wore when you ventured past the civilized east into the scantily charted area of the west. It was a style born not of nobility or the fashionable elite, but of those who found themselves with a very real need for a different, more durable manner of dressing themselves.
The east, after all, was formed of cities and farms. There was plenty of wilderness, yes, but for the most part, there were a number of well populated areas, surrounded by more rural areas, and roads through what wilderness there was to the next area, which also consisted of rural areas surrounding a more densely populated center. Out west, however, populated areas were slowly growing up for the first time- at least as far as Europeans were concerned. The Native Americans that were living there either got along with the new settlers or didn't, but as the Europeans were inclined to wipe out those whom they could not get along with, this issue more or less resolved itself. The land, whether stolen, bought, or found, was new.
The land was full of briars and burs, wild creatures, tall grasses. During the Great Cattle Drive of the mid 1860s, cowboys found themselves with boots full of water when fording rivers, legs and ankles bruised and scratched up from stirrups, fences, briars and just about everything else you can imagine as well. They were stepping out of stirrups with fear, knowing that a rattlesnake bite on their lower leg would be the end of them, or at least a very painful journey they didn't particularly care to take. And thus, the needs were there, the standards were set, and the cowboy boot was born out of a commission for a boot that would prevent or at least lessen all of these woes.
Today, western wear has spread far from its humble roots of necessity. It has been embraced by those out west who are living big city lives that are a far cry from the pioneering past of those cities' inhabitants. Furthermore, it has been celebrated by fashion designers, celebrities and others whose names and deeds carry weight and authority- at least over our sense of style. After all is said and done, western apparel has become the singlemost authentic American look there is.
Written by Melanie Rivers. Brand name
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