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Cowboy hats: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and Pharrell Williams’ Louis Vuitton FW24 collection ride the Western trend, saddling up with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in Barbie, and Bella Hadid’s rodeo-chic

Beyoncé lets her inner cowgirl loose at the Grammys in February. Photo: Getty Images

Yee-haw … 2024 is shaping up as the year of the cowboy. Specifically it is the year the cowboy hat gets its rightful place outside the rodeo (and particularly raucous hen’s nights and bachelorette parties).

Beyoncé setting the internet alight by dropping her new country-tinged album Cowboy Carter on Friday has officially declared it so. The trend was shaping up though, not least courtesy of Beyoncé herself, who in the lead-up to the album’s release was snapped in a white Stetson and custom pieces from Pharrell Williams’ cowboy-inspired Louis Vuitton autumn/winter 2024-25 show. Beyoncé’s 2023 Renaissance tour was also Western-inspired, with a custom wardrobe by Roberto Cavalli.

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Margot Robbie in a custom Deadwood 4X hat with Ryan Gosling wearing a modified Shasta 10X from Stetson in the film Barbie. Photo: Handout
Further proof? There were Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling’s matching cowboy hats in the culture-shifting film Barbie; Lana del Rey’s forthcoming country album, Lasso; Schiaparelli’s cowboy- and alien-inspired haute couture collection for spring/summer 2024; and Ralph Lauren’s drops from its first artist in residence, designer Naiomi Glasses. For Chanel pre-autumn 2022, Virginie Viard topped many looks with variations on black cowboy hats.
Bella Hadid captioned this post “ leader of the fan club”, referring to her rodeo star boyfriend Adan Banuelos. Photo: @bellahadid/Instagram
Meanwhile, model and ultimate horsey girl Bella Hadid is proving to be the queen of rodeo fashion. One of her most recent posts on Instagram was of her supporting her rodeo star boyfriend Adan Banuelos in a cowboy hat and turquoise jewellery. She captioned the pic “leader of the fan club”. In another post, she pairs a cowboy hat with a sparkly backless top.

Hadid isn’t the only celebrity in on the trend. Hailey Bieber has worn a style from the buzzy Australian label Lack of Color, and Dua Lipa and Emily Ratajkowski are fans of Mexican designer Montserrat Messeguer. Perhaps there is no more famous cowboy hat brand right now than the Aspen-based Kemo Sabe – fans of its custom approach include Beyoncé, Shania Twain, various members of the Kardashian-Jenner family, Rihanna and Kevin Costner (who is of course no stranger to a cowboy hat thanks to his role as rancher patriarch John Dutton in Yellowstone).

Kelly Reilly as Beth Dutton and Kevin Costner as John Dutton in Yellowstone. Photo: Handout
Superfans of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills will also remember the brand’s store as backdrop to a margarita-fuelled fight between castmates Lisa Rinna and Kathy Hilton over which tequila is the best.

According to Trendalytics, there has been a 400 per cent increase in social media chatter for cowboy hats compared to this time a year ago.

The Instagram account @databutmakeitfashion noted that “cowboy style” had been mentioned in four per cent of the top posts analysed.

Ralph Lauren x Naiomi Glasses second drop – Color in Motion. Photo: Handout

That said, whether it’s writer and style icon Fran Lebowitz in her signature cowboy boots or quietly luxurious brands such as Lemaire subtly nodding to the cowboy aesthetic with turquoise embroidery, cowboy-influenced style will always have appeal.

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As Isha Nicole, creative director and senior vice-president of marketing for the Western wear company Boot Barn recently told Women’s Wear Daily, “Western is not a trend,” rather, “Western is an iconic American culture.”

Still, if you want to wear a cowboy hat, and you’re not in tobacco-spitting distance of a rodeo, you could opt for straw or raffia version from brands such as Lack of Color, Gigi Burris or Stetson themselves. It’s a hat tip to the look without it feeling like a costume, and works as well for a music festival, as a date in the city.

Fashion
  • Big hat names include Stetson; Lack of Color, worn by Hailey Bieber; and Kemo Sabe, stanned by everyone from Rihanna to Yellowstone’s Kevin Costner; while Dua Lipa and Emily Ratajkowski are fans of Montserrat Messeguer
  • Pharrell looked west with his LV autumn-winter collection – cowboy vibes have also ridden the runway in Chanel’s pre-autumn 2022 collection, Schiaparelli’s spring/summer 2024 and in the Ralph Lauren and Naiomi Glasses collab