Style descriptor: Hollywood Cowgirl?

In searching for a cohesive label to describe my aspiring style, I realized that I have a bit of a costume bent in competition with my basic sporty natural tendencies. No wonder my closet feels conflicted sometimes. Some of my favorite pieces, like my JPeterman frock coat, would be well suited to a stage or film. Looking at celebrity or street fashion photos doesn't jazz me the way clothes from some films:

The Sting: I want Paul Newman's and Robert Redford's suits tailored for me! Edith Head did the costumes for this film and her other films all have a fantastic look.
Meryl Streep's safari clothes in Out of Africa
Lauren Bacall's plaid suit in To Have an Have Not
Meryl Streep's cape in The French Lieutenant's Woman
Linda Evans' costume photos from The Gambler with Kenny Rodgers

All strong women, a lot of gender bending, a lot of traveling and clothes in motion. My moniker said more about me than I realized.

Noodling around the Interwebs I found a photo gallery of Hollywood Cowgirls that has a lot of fun styles amongst the kitsch. And I have always been a big fan of the over-the-top Nudie Cohn Suit. If I could get my hands on authentic mariachi costume, I'd wear the jacket with jeans. DoubleD Ranchwear makes me swoon.

Maybe Hollywood Cowgirl is one of my style descriptors: git it done practical, a bit androgynous, but with some costume flair. Some days more Hollywood (never modern glitzy country music Nashville), some days more no nonsense cowgirl.

And would that particular style descriptor actually help me shop? I can see already that I need to work at choosing the right supporting players to support the star pieces I covet, without going so far as to look like I got lost on the way to the amateur melodrama production or am channelling Dale Evans at a Saturday matinee. Hmmm, a sheath dress under my short Pendleton jacket?

PS It's a good thing this jacket is sold out. I'd mortgage my goats to get it.

10 years ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Oooh. I love Edith Head's costumes. Gorgeous. She wrote the very first book on style I ever read; my mother owned it.

I think Hollywood Cowgirl is a brilliant moniker. It's just as useful as mine (Urban Prince). Go to it!

goldenpig

Wow, I love your moniker! Can't wait to see it in action!

When I first started out, I figured out I was a Demure Bombshell, but now I need to find a moniker for my darker edgier persona.

rachylou

The moniker is so good, you have no choice now: You're Hollywood Cowgirl

Firecracker (Sharan)

I'm thinking it's not so much Hollywood as glamor maybe? Cowgirl glam? Or glam rancher, to get the androgyny and working-clothes ethic in there?

rabbit

I love your description and that's a great moniker.

I've seen the fashionable cowgirl look in the wild leaning two ways most often -- First, retro cowgirl, which is kind of like the golden age of Hollywood style you are describing with lots of bombshell and 40's-50's inspired tailoring (plus the tweezed eyebrows, red lips, and sleek hair -- usually on young people who also are into rockabilly and Bob Wills). Second being world traveller/boho cowgirl which the double D ranch clothes look like to me -- hair is more long and flowy or in braids, lots of stacked bracelets, layering of embroidered detail and jewelry, likely to be into the Santa Fe Indian Market maybe.

I think one of the differences is RATE boho vs. polished retro, and/or ALGO vs. more minimal and sleek (but with cheek) so it might be worth thinking about what the other descriptors are that modify and expand on your style moniker. It sounds like safari/tweed is in there too.

Beth Ann

I also feel the inspirational value of great costuming, and I love your moniker. Take it for a test drive for a few months and see what happens.

Rambling Ann

Suz, I am hunting that book!

I think I will do as Beth Ann suggests and see how it wears. The opportunities to get the good clothes out are infrequent anyway, except for travel (next week to San Francisco!)

Perhaps this explains why I have 5 denim jackets (oddly, none blue) and 3 shirts with pearl snaps for buttons. Alas, my feet have rejected my black lizard cowboy boots.

And Rabbit has me pegged as world traveler/RATE. The two pencil skirts I have owned in my life have been too confining. A woman needs freedom to move! Katharine Hepburn's penchant for slacks is another inspiration.

And I would love to own a fabulous le smoking. Not that I need such a thing. But it is so Hollywood.

Oh what a fun style & moniker too! Your thoughts were so wonderful to read (I'm a fan of the Golden Age of Hollywood as well and clothes that let me stride about having adventures big and small). I love Rabbit's parsing too of the different connotations/paths. I bet it would help you shop: I've come up with all kinds of names/phrases/etc. related to my style, but what I use most these days as a shopping shorthand is 'storybook character,' a phrase the marvelous Shevia gifted me. Something about it being a 'person' makes decisions easier, although I do still run through my favourite adjectives sometimes too.

If you enjoy reading, have you read Laurie King's Mary Russell books? Lots of androgyny and travel, a bit of glamour, and strong women everywhere you look. It begins with The Beekeeper's Apprentice, which is structured a bit differently than the rest of the series, but I think it's probably best to read them in order, due to the main character's development/growth.

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