Fashion goes Western—from Texas to Bukidnon

The biggest fashion splash was at Pharrell Williams’ sophomore outing for the Louis Vuitton FW2024 menswear show done in the style of a Western epic that paid tribute to Black cowboys by mixing traditional elements of cowboy hats, bolo ties, and large buckled belts with streetwear like hoodies and bomber jackets. To expand representation around cowboy imagery, which has historically leaned heavily on exclusively white references, he invited black and brown men from the Oklahoma Cowboys, a group that represents Black cowboy culture, to model the garments.

Gap went West, too, collaborating with the legendary Harlem tailor Dapper Dan, famous for his mix of European luxury designer looks with the hip-hop aesthetic, but this time creating denim button-downs and Oxford shirts embroidered with images of cowboy hats.

Beyonce went all-out cowgirl in her Renaissance concert tour, heralding the release of her Cowboy Carter album, a homage to her Houston roots, collaborating with country icons like Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. Taylor Swift made sparkly cowboy boots a thing in her Eras tour, while Lana Del Rey is going country as well with a new album titled Lasso. Barbie and Ken couldn’t help going Western in pink in their big hit movie last spring.

“Cowboycore” is an enduring style going way back to 19th-century American frontier clothing, as well as Hollywood’s stylized singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers in the 1940s and ’50s. Flashy, bedazzled costumes by Nudie Cohn helped shape the look of country music stars, ushering the rhinestone cowboy fashion trend. The tailor memorably made a gold lamé suit for Elvis Presley, who wore it for an album cover.

The look has a rich history derived from many foreign and native influences. Many elements come from the vaquero tradition of horse-mounted livestock herders in northern Mexico, which in turn adopted it from Spain.

The Western dress shirt, with its stylized yoke, has the elaborate piping and embroidered roses of the vaqueros. The coats also originated from the Mexican charro suits and included frock coats, ponchos, short suits with silver embroidery and fringe jackets. The same for the cowboy boots, which have Spanish riding-boot origins but have evolved into the high-heeled variety with hand-tooled embroidery and stitching.

Trousers were in wool or canvas, but during the 1840s Gold Rush, denim overalls became popular and after Levi Strauss improved the design using copper rivets in the 1870s, jeans became the standard.

Interestingly, the original preferred hat was not the iconic Stetson but rather the bowler because it was less likely to be blown off by the wind. Other Victorian influences were the cravats or neckties that developed into bandanas tied around the neck.

Women at this time wore knee-length prairie skirts, red or blue gingham dresses, or suede fringed skirts derived from Native American dress. Saloon girls flirted in short red dresses with corsets, garter belts, and stockings.

In its recent May issue, Vogue Philippines tapped into the style to further enrich it, giving a uniquely Filipino spin by incorporating the barong, baro’t saya and tapis in indigenous weaves executed by local designers and ateliers like Joey Samson, Randy Ortiz, and Len Cabili of Filip+Inna. They shot their editorial in Bukidnon, which actually has a cowboy culture, even if it’s 8,385 miles away from Texas.

The province celebrates their tribal cultures through the Kaamulan Festival in the capital city of Malaybalay. After the street dances and contests in the morning, the afternoon is dedicated to their cowboy heritage, which arose from Spanish and American colonial times when portions of their landlocked province were transformed into ranches with sizable cattle populations. The different ranches come together for a rodeo, demonstrating their lassoing skills and prowess in chasing calves and bulls.

Horses may have already been brought by powerful Malay princes to the Sulu Islands in Mindanao from Sumatra, Borneo, and Malacca as early as the 14th century and cattle originated from both China and Mexico around 1586.

Around 640 hectares of land in Bukidnon are used as a communal ranch, the biggest of which is in Impasugong, where the earliest cowboys were said to be trained by Americans. The tradition has been passed on from generation to generation.

Masbate in the Bicol region also has a rodeo festival to celebrate Philippine cowboy and cowgirl culture. In April, they have the juego de toro or bull game where no lassos are allowed—you can only use your bare hands to catch any cow, which can be yours if you’re successful. Many travel by boat from other provinces to participate, aside from the Masbate natives from the ranches.

Manuel Sese, a retired judge who owns a ranch outside Masbate City, shared in an interview with The New York Times’ Mike Ives that his province’s “rugged culture and rolling grasslands helped produce legions of capable cowboys,” some of whom work in his ranch. They call themselves koboys, the Filipino slang equivalent.

A former colonial port that had cattle stockyards near its docks until the 1970s, Masbate City’s rodeo arena is the centerpiece of a fairground where fans congregate wearing denim, flannel, and cowboy hats. There’s even a honky-tonk musical number written for the occasion and line dancing, where groups wear Western outfits that would look right at home in Texas or on Beyoncé’s stage when she commences her Cowboy Carter concert tour.