High Fashion Goes West: Cowboy Couture on the Runway
You can’t talk about fashion in 2024 without tipping your (cowboy) hat to Cowboy Carter. Beyoncé kickstarted a movement reclaiming black voices in the country space by dropping this album. From her rhinestone bodysuits to red-carpet rodeo glam, Beyonce redefined what it means to dress “country,” sparking a Western wear revival that’s made its way into high fashion, streetwear, and the closets of just about every fashion girlie on the internet. What started as an artistic reclamation of country culture has exploded into a full-on cowboy-core renaissance, with designers, brands, and fans all saddling up for the ride. Continue reading to learn why Cowboy Carter became the most stylish thing to ever come out of the Wild West.
It didn’t take long for luxury designers and streetwear labels alike to tap into the cowboy zeitgeist. In fact, some were already headed westward and found Cowboy Carter pouring fuel on the fire. Pharrell Williams, in his role as Louis Vuitton’s menswear creative director, directed a headline-grabbing Western-themed collection for LV’s Fall/Winter 2024 show in Paris. The runway was a luxe reimagining of the Old West: models strutted in faded denim covered in Western appliqués, dazzling Nudie suits (those rhinestone-covered country singer suits) in neon brights, fringed gaucho pants, silk rodeo shirts, bolo ties, and grommet-studded cowboy boots and leather hats. Most striking of all, Pharrell cast a notably diverse lineup heavy with Black and Native American models, a nod to the overlooked historical cowboys of color. “When you see cowboys portrayed, you see only a few versions,” Pharrell said backstage. “You never really get to see what some of the original cowboys looked like. They looked like us. They looked like me. They were Black and they were Native American”. His Louis Vuitton debut of the Black cowboy aesthetic was both a fashion statement and a cultural one, and it coincided perfectly with the conversations Beyoncé was sparking about reclaiming country culture.
Pharrell’s not alone. The Fall 2024 runways were practically a rodeo circuit: Dsquared2’s co-ed Fall/Winter 2024 show in Milan told a sartorial tale “from scruffy ranch boys to ’80s disco cowboys,” mixing mud-stained plaids and shearling vests with glitzy evening wear drenched in crystals. American mainstay Ralph Lauren, who has always mined Western iconography, leaned even harder into cowboy classics for his Fall 2024 collection, staging a show in New York that earned praise for its Western-inspired elegance.
Even Italian luxury got on board: Prada and its sister line Miu Miu incorporated Western motifs into 2024 designs, from cowboy-boot silhouettes to rustic fringed suede detailing, albeit filtered through a chic Milanese lens. In streetwear, brands like Telfar (famed for its “Bushwick Birkin” shopping bag) collaborated with Beyoncé’s tour to create custom Western denim fits.
No corner of fashion has been immune. In the advertising world, campaign imagery has embraced the frontier spirit too. Luxury houses from Celine to Saint Laurent shot campaigns in desert landscapes with cacti and horses, outfitting models in cowboy hats and embroidered boots. Forbes noted that by early 2024, brands as varied as Miu Miu, Prada, Celine, and even classic Western outfitters like Stetson were all leaning into Wild West vibes in some form.
In the end, Cowboy Carter and the fashion it ignited moved in tandem; one reimagining country sound, and the other reimagining country style. Together, they rewrote the narrative, proving that reclaiming culture is both powerful and runway-ready.