Now Trending: Fashion Goes West

Though the summer sun still shines here in North Texas, we at DFW Style Daily are looking ahead. Today, we premier our F/W 2014 Trending series with the first of ten key fashion trends for the season to come. Take note, and you’ll be ahead of the style curve come fall.

First up, Fall 2014 brings a resurgence of styles nodding to the 19th-century American West. This trend was won in 2014 by Karl Lagerfeld’s brilliant Chanel Metiers d’Art Paris-Dallas Collection unveiled right here in Big D last December. Lagerfeld’s interpretations included reproductions of period styles from the rough wild, including Native Americans, pioneer women, cowboys, cowgirls, and vaqueros.

Stylized western garments have enjoyed resurgences at several key moments in fashion history. Popularized by singing cowboys and cowgirls such as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Dale Evans, western shirts with embellished yokes and pearl snap fastenings gained momentum in the 1940’s and 1950’s. So-called Italian-made ‘spaghetti’ western movies continued the trend throughout the 1960’s, and millions of viewers around the globe were mesmerized by the drama and fashion of the original Dallas television series, starting in 1978. Indeed, the line has long been blurred between the glamorized cowboy stereotype and the reality of true western wear. For example, the tall, white ten-gallon hats worn by movie gunslingers were of little use for their real-life counterparts. Those hats would have been easy targets. More accurate, low crown black hats were most popular throughout the earliest of pioneering days. We keep in mind that most true western wear’s reason for being was to keep our hard-working ancestors safe and well protected. But glamour prevails this fall season - and who are we to argue with glamour? Below, we see fringe, hats, buckles, and more, in fall ready-to-wear collections. Read on for designer inspiration, plus two buy-it-now finds:

On The Runway