By Old Hoppy Feb 10, 2010 in Clothing and Fashion, Cowboys | 0 Comments
A cowboy shirt topped the list for awhile of all the things I wanted as a kid. Of course the childhood passion I had for a cowboy shirt was closely followed by cowboy boots (with a jangling pair of spurs, of course!) and a great six-gun cap gun and holster set.
A good cowboy shirt and comfortable boots would still rank highly on my list of gifts for any gift-receiving occasion, although I’ll admit I’m not that keen anymore on the cap gun and holster set. (A number of years ago when my teenage son discovered I was working on a Western novel, he gave me a toy six-gun and a plastic sheriff’s star. I kept them just for the fun of it; and, no, the novel never got finished.)
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By Old Hoppy Dec 15, 2009 in Clothing and Fashion, Cowboys | 0 Comments
Today’s horse riding boots differ greatly from footwear in the Old West. Boot making and shoe making technology and materials are radically different today than they were on the Plains or prairies of the 1800s. Today’s boots offer comfort and fit unknown back then.
In the Old West, horse riding boots came in about one general selection — leather. Sure, depending on the skills and interests of an individual boot maker, they might be shaped a bit differently from pair to pair, and some boot craftsmen might vary the length of the boot on the leg and the height of the heel. But the one thing you could count on in a good pair of horse riding boots was that they would be made of leather.
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By Old Hoppy Jun 3, 2009 in Clothing and Fashion | 0 Comments
Belt buckles are a relatively modern invention, and Western style or cowboy style belt buckles blended utility with the desire to show off or “fancy up” things and dress for going out on the town. The utility of a belt and buckle was that it plain and simply cinched up the pants, while offering a convenient place to tuck in a sidearm, or wear a holster. The showmanship or dress-up aspect came about as silversmiths and other metal workers found ways to shape, carve, and engrave pictures and symbols into the buckle, turning it into a fancy ornament, a piece of acceptably “manly” jewelry for cowboys and others in the Old West.
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By Old Hoppy Jun 9, 2008 in Clothing and Fashion | 0 Comments
A friend of mine who’s quite a Western writer in his own right tipped me off to a great book, and a snippet of information in that book actually discusses clothing and fashion in the Old West — with a clever explanation of why old Abe Lincoln so often appears in photos wearing baggy pants obviously in need of a good pressing.
Old Abe wore the baggy pants because he was in style for the mid- to late-1800s in men’s clothing and fashions.
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