ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the origins of Western clothing, and its transition from everyday apparel to fashion item. It is often an illustration of the way that fashion borrows motifs from popular culture in the search for something new. This may also work in reverse, with popular culture appropriating themes and motifs from fashion, in a cyclical process of derivation. It also considers how film has been instrumental in either creating or reflecting stereotypes of the West, through the clothing worn by actors. The diffusion of Western clothing from frontier to mainstream can be traced to a number of key influences artworks later made into prints by the likes of A.F.Tait and Alfred Miller, newspaper articles and books, including the dime store novel, live performances such as Cody's Wild West Show and subsequently rodeos. At the Ranch at Rock Creek in Montana, the owner hires cowboys with college degrees, but who are garbed in Stetsons and chaps.
