10 ways Louis Vuitton is leading the pack with cowboy core

Whether you call it the yeehaw agenda or western wear, it looks like rodeo-ready fashions are taking over the fashion industry. From stars such as Beyoncé, who has fashioned her latest album Cowboy Carter around the aesthetic, or runways with dominant styling cues at the recent spring shows in New York, one fashion house that has embraced the trend with great strides is Louis Vuitton. 

Here's a look at some of the staples and ideas they brought forward in their recent collection:

1. WORKWEAR

Savoir-faire honours the workwear intrinsic to the American Western wardrobe. Denim is iced with pearl and sequin floral embroideries, gunmetal-washed and adorned with sunbeam and rain beading or printed with Western floral motifs.

Chaps manifest in denim or fringed leather studded or embroidered with monogram and florals, while leather jackets and trousers mimic the embossing of saddles. Plaid morphs with Damier in a Buffalo Check interpreted in bushed flannel, tweed, sequins and shearling intarsia across coats, jackets and shirts.

Blanket coats and gilets are emblazoned with cowboy monogram, pyjamas are crafted in cowboy lace and a tweed jacket appears in cowboy-infused “horse tooth”.

Original cowboy paintings are adapted into jacquard tapestry employed in raincoats, dry canvases used in a rope-embroidered jacket or prints on garments aged as if eroded by the prairie sun.

2. TAILORING AND SHIRTING

Louis Vuitton's dandy evolves through the American Western tradition of dressing up. Approached through a country lens, suits and shirts are chain-stitched with the cacti, ox heads and bolos as part of Western imagery.

Dungarees — the jewel in the workwear crown — are celebrated in fine tailoring fabric. Western shirts amplify the yokes, rivets and floral embroideries inherent to the trend, while others appear in cowboy monogram jacquard, cowboy lace, Western prints, or garlanded with soutache embroidery on chambray.

3. COLLABORATIONS

In a collaboration with Timberland, a series of American work boots are interpreted through the creative lens of Louis Vuitton. A classic industrial boot is proposed in wheat-coloured or black waterproof scrivante nubuck lightly debossed with the LV monogram, also echoed on the back of the tongue. 

The same expression expands into a silhouette 15% larger than the classic. Finally, a highly limited-edition of the design is crafted with eyelets and tongue pendants featuring the LV monogram in genuine gold, and carried in monogram canvas and Plexiglas shoe trunks. The collaboration features three pull-on boots set on XL soles in wheat or black scrivante nubuck or pebble nubuck with Louis Vuitton bag pullers or brown leather ankle cuffs. A hook-laced work boot is set on an XL sole and adorned with a monogram ankle cuff and a side zip.

4. BAGS

The collection debuts a new heat-moulded studded handle bag known as the Speedy conceived by Pharrell Williams.

Classics are upscaled with details including an aged monogram canvas, brushed monogram and faded denim damier appear eroded by the prairie sun.

The damoflage pattern evolves in orange and eclipse nuances and in what has been defined as cowmooflage, a bovine camouflage canvas, adopts the textures of cow hair. Carved leather bags adapt the mouldings of saddles.

5. THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WORKING

Shoes take inspiration from the work boots of the American West. Created alongside the expert Western bootmaker Goodyear in Texas, the LV Texan is an authentic cowboy boot whose stitch and appliqué́ decorations blend Louis Vuitton’s iconography with that of the American West.

The LV Rodeo cowboy shoe materialises as a harnessed lace-up and a cowboy belt buckled monk shoe. A streamlined round toe Western boot, the LV Rider appears in croc, python, ostrich, suede and cow hair.

The LV Footprint slipper with its paw-embossed sole takes on a new furry manifestation. The materials of the collections are applied to high and low versions of the LV Snow boot and the LV Maxi Trainer. The collection debuts a new technical rubber boot in the Damoflage pattern with a chequered sole.

6. TRIBAL DETAILS

Outside the collection's cowboy hats with leather belts and patchwork details, a breath of fresh air is found with the parfleche blankets and Dakota flower scarves created with artists and artisans of the Dakota and Lakota nations. 

Leather caps adapt the buckles and stitching of cowboy boots, turquoise embellished denim caps are eroded as if bleached by the sun and cowboy boot toe tips grace the visors of cow hair caps. Leather gloves are printed with American Western tattoo motifs, turquoise studded cow hair gloves nod at dandy dressing and suede work gloves are decorated with workwear labels.

7. COWBOY BLING

Informed by 19th century parures, the collection’s jewellery proposal is constructed in genuine turquoise. A necklace in turquoise and zircons — with a matching ring and earrings — is echoed in the construction of a cowboy bolo.

In turn, bolos transform into necklaces with antique finishes and turquoise cabochons and also materialise in braided leather. Hand-crafted logo and lasso brooches appear in zircons and enamel. The Louis Vuitton rope chain evolves in new ringlet construction on bracelets set with turquoise, are also incorporated into pearl necklaces. Saluting the cowboy, rope motifs further feature as engravings on silver rings and in the texture of earrings with turquoise settings. A new fine silver link chain inspired by rope makes its debut in supersized dimension.

For eyewear, Williams looked back to his first collaboration with the brand co-designed with streetwear sensation Nigo on The Millionaires sunglasses. Created in 2004 the updated version features three new editions. 

Each pair is set with genuine diamonds and crafted in white gold, enhanced with light carbon fibres. 

9. FROM THE SCREEN TO THE RUNWAY

The Louis Vuitton Autumn-Winter 2024 Men’s Show opened with a fashion film directed by Bafic. Capturing Ron Husband at work, it illuminates the American character animator as he sketches his vision of the first cowboy — a subject central to the collection — and reflects on themes of human relations, cultural impact and the American West.

Born in California in 1950, Husband worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios for 38 years and counts characters from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King among his accomplishments. He is considered one of the most influential artists of the genre.

10. THE PERFORMERS' WARDROBE

As per Williams' previous collections at the helm of Louis Vuitton, his cowboy core show featured live performances, and this time he looked to the Native Voices of Resistance, a group comprising singers from native American nations across North America.

The troupe wore designs made by Dee Jay Two Bears of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the garments worn by the performers are adorned with modern-day winter count motifs tracing the story of the collaboration and the creation of the collection through the visual language of glyphs.