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We’ve occasionally complained about how we don’t like watching and reviewing westerns, and the main reason is that the costumes are super boring! Every now and then, a historical movie or TV show will take a nuanced look at a specific period within the broad span from the 1849 California Gold Rush and the closing of the American frontier in 1890. A few frock flicks even try to do something different with wild west costumes other than ye olde “Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, and buckskins” of the genre per Wikipedia. But it’s rare, and most western indulge in the clichés. Even worse for us, these flicks are usually male-centered, with the female characters playing small parts and wearing the worst costumes.

So what should people be wearing onscreen in the old west? Mostly the same thing as they’d be wearing in the rest of America, maybe a little more simple or rustic, but that depends on their activity. A woman or man running a shop on the frontier would aim for relatively fashionable clothes, while someone riding horses and wrangling cows would, of course, wear work garb. Settlers and farmers working the land wouldn’t be as fancy as those living in town, but they’d all wear garments that showed the same general silhouettes for the era.
Stuff like this:
Men working the range would be wearing denim trousers (predecessors of today’s jeans), and their hats would either be bowlers or they’d have wide brims to keep off the sun. This fella has a lot of gear, though his actual clothes are rather plain.

Now historical movies and TV shows set in the American west are all over the map when it comes to costumes, sometimes making a stab at historical accuracy:



Sometimes taking a stylized look at historical costume:


We can kind of get into it when frock flicks give either of those angles a spin, honestly. We need something to look at (and blog about!). But when western movies and TV shows just don’t give a fuck about the costumes, why should we?
Many of these so-called frock flicks fall into two loose, and often overlapping, categories of IDGAF — 1) half-assed historical or 2) modern off the rack. Let’s start with the half-assed ones. This is where I can see the historical era was considered, but minimal effort was made.
Starting here — points for the western bib-front shirts in the Republic of Texas, so 1830s-40s, but that’s all.

But how is this one set in 1878’s Arizona territory?

I’m only seeing the very faintest relation to the fashions worn in frontier near the same time.

Not clear what year this next one’s set, but it takes place in New Mexico Territory during the second half of the 19th century. She should be wearing something more like the photo of Mott, above, than her half-assed costume.

At least this next gal is wearing a corset. Who’s gonna tell her it should be underneath her shirt?

Generic check shirt this guy in the 1890s, meh.

Also supposedly 1890s…

Really? I’m not seeing the connection.

Then there are historical movies and TV shows set in the old west that really look like they were costumed with modern off-the-rack clothes. Did they have no budget? Or did they just give up?
This western flick has no stated date for, but who wears a satin blouse out on a dusty range?

Those bishop sleeves were very popular in the 1930s though.

Many generic “westerns” have equally generic costumes. Just blouses and long skirts (and poodle perms!).

I’d buy that this dude is probably in 1870s New Mexico Territory, but where’s the gal from?

And is she wearing a skirt or culottes?

Lady, that’s a lot of sternum for the 1870s.

Couldn’t they at least have ordered from Sears?

Nominally set in the 1870s, but just looks 1970s to me.

I remember those blouses and dresses!

This guy just wearing a cropped leather blazer with a bunch of belts in 1880. Steampunk way before it was trendy!

Why do so many movies just throw a random shirt on a gal and call it “1880s Texas”?

Oooo, he’s fancy.

Ready for a night on the town!

This one is just set in “late 19th-century California,” but his pants are straight outta 1974.

They were called “elephant bell bottoms,” and they weren’t part of frontier lore.

One of the biggest clichés in western frock flicks is the saloon girl, aka the western whore, who wears something based around a corset and not much else. While, yes, late 19th-century burlesque stage performers might wear outfits like this:

And there are cabinet cards meant for sexual titillation along the same lines, I call BS on every dinky wild west town having a floozie dressed in these crazy outfits! Of course, Marlene Dietrich started it, and everyone else had to copy it. Doesn’t mean it’s right.

The photographs of actual 19th-century prostitutes are rare (as opposed to images staged for titillation, which you find all over), but the few we can find show that these working women dressed in whatever was fashionable for their times.

If they were at work, they might wear aprons to keep tidy, like all the women in this saloon. Some are even raising full glasses to drink with the men (and since it wasn’t seemly for women and men to drink together in a bar, well, that hints at the profession of these ladies).

I doubt prostitutes during the American Gold Rush era wore much Aqua-Net in their hair or had stretchy nylon lace gloves.

I guess I should be happy she’s wearing a skirt?

But the shiny orange polyester doesn’t help.

Next up, anachronistic feminism, one of our faves! Got an independent female character in a western flick? She must wear pants to show she’s spunky and not like the other girls. Never mind that women didn’t wear these kinds of pants in the 19th century. So no jeans in the 1860s like this:

You might see bloomer outfits for riding bicycles or other sports, and a few western female performers wore pants, but that’s all.

But there’s also pix of “Calamity Jane” in typical female dress of the period.

In this movie, the woman becomes a temporary marshal after her husband is killed, so that might excuse her wearing pants. But honey, that is not an 1870s style of trouser.

A famous Civil War doctor, Medal of Honor award recipient, and dress reformer, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker wore pants for much of her adult life. The garments were not body-hugging, just practical.

I think the excuse in this TV show is that the woman is a bank robber. But the look is too sexed-up for 1870s.

This woman is simply a landowner who hires forty guns in 1880s Arizona. She’s independent, yes, but that’s no reason for trousers.

I guess these bad girls deserve bad costumes?

Even though there may be a rare female cowhand in pants…

…notice how she isn’t wearing a corset on the outside of her shirt like these gals in 1880s Mexico.

Do costumes in westerns annoy you too?
I would try Hell on Wheels. The clothing is actually pretty good. There really aren’t hairpin shortages. And some SERIOUS SERIOUS eye candy with the leading man.
Agree with the eye candy! Deadwood is also pretty good, it really illustrates the social hierarchy with clothes, as far as fabric, trim and who has a multitude of outfit changes. As far as accuracy everyone, including the whores wears a chemise under their corsets and the women even have historically accurate armpit hair.
Not to mention the show is pretty great in itself.
Yeah, for the most part, westerns suck when it comes to costuming. But… Jodie Foster’s costumes in Maverick are gorgeous. That blue dress is stunning.
Does the fact that the dress in High Noon is supposed to be her wedding dress, imported from “back East” help at all? I honestly don’t know.
I know what it’s supposed to be – but it’s a terrible interpretation of that, what with the bullet bra & all. Compare to the photo of Cerissa Mott above & note the differences!
I think for Snark week, to add to the context of the picture showing
My Darling Clementine (1946)
That is Linda Darnell whose playing a supposedly Latin literally named “Chihuahua”… so yeah we all know what the costumers were doing for that one
Especially if you see the movie and screenshots of what she was wearing
In no context would that be worn in the 1880s.
Oh yeah I completely agree, sorry I was using a sarcastic tone but forget the emojis so read it in an exasperrated tone.
Also do acknowledge that the way I typed it does come off a bit douchy
In all fairness they may be referring to her point of origin (Chihuahua being a Mexican state, as well as a dog breed) in much the same way certain characters are referred to as ‘Texas’.
Re: the photo from The Furies (1950), she’s wearing a split skirt, aka a divided skirt, for riding. It was a real garment used for riding by women out West. Probably not accurate for 1870s, but it was common from the 1890s through the 1920s. And of course the rest of the outfit is out of place.
Re: Zandy’s Bride (1974), I haven’t seen the film but from the still it doesn’t look like they are pants, but rather leather chaps, possibly of the “batwings” style.
They look like denim pants. Bell-bottom jeans, to be precise.
I read them as chaps.
I can see why you’d say that from the way they read in that one still– but in other promotional stills and the film itself (available on YouTube) it’s unquestionably big, flappy leather chaps worn over standard straight-leg pants that show underneath whenever Gene Hackman moves.
(However, Liv Ullmann’s “mail-order bride” character does wear baggy, wide-legged “bloomer”-type fabric pants in a couple of scenes where she’s trying to ride a horse.)
I thought that American Primeval was quite accurate regarding women’s clothes and showing a strong feminine character without falling into the trap into anachronistic feminism. But I guess that’s still boring costume-wise ;)
No love for Blazing Saddles? I woke up this morning singing “I’m Tired”. :)
I don’t know the period, but thoughts about Tombstone? The Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday one.
Sarah Lorraine gave Tombstone a lot of love in 2019, can find it via the search button. Definitely not a snark week candidate, the costumes are truly good! Plus, Val Kilmer etc…. “I’m your huckleberry.”
Yes, if they’re made pre-1980s. In any Old West photos I have seen, the men aren’t wearing tiny hats. They should be wide-brimmed and protect them from the sun. But for some reason, shows and films have men wearing this dinky hats.
I suspect the key factor contributing to this lamentable tendency is that ‘Western’ became a genre and an aesthetic unto itself quite early in the history of Hollywood, meaning that those costuming Westerns were often more interested in embodying the genre than in depicting the actual historic period.
It probably doesn’t help that the Western genre is one of the most iconography-rich and iconic, making it all the harder for productions to look past such visual splendours and hoe their own row.
That the ‘Wild West’ is an era with fluid, even arguable boundaries (Some might argue it stretched from 1849 to the early 20th century, others that it began earlier or later), given that fashions changed throughout that period and that the setting encompasses a multitude of cultures and subcultures, it’s no surprise that getting the details right requires a far more sensitive eye than most productions looking to bring the stuff of youthful imagination to life are inclined to apply.
I had to go back and read the Young Guns entry again. Like Tombstone, I’m glad that the costuming holds up so well. And oh dear, now I want to watch it so much, but at the same time, feel like my admiration of the cast would be so age-inappropriate!