Cowboy Boots, the Iconic Expression of Western Wear
By Chadd Scott on
Cowboy boots
No matter your age. No matter your race. No matter your gender. No matter what part of the world you live in. No matter if you’re working a full day sweating under a hot sun or walking a red carpet. Cowboys boots are cool. Always have been.
Country music superstars are synonymous with cowboy boots from Roy Rogers and Hank Williams to George Strait and Garth Brooks. Patsy Cline to Taylor Swift.
Rock stars wear them too. Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Axl Rose.
Of course, every famous movie or TV cowboy wore cowboy boots on screen and often off.
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders wear cowboy boots. Randy “Macho Man” Savage wore cowboy boots. Anthony Bourdain wore cowboy boots. Andy Warhol had a large collection of cowboy boots.
Chances are, anyone cool, do anything cool, he or she has been seen doing it in cowboy boots.
Cowboy boots are even cool in Toronto.
Olsen-Steizer, American, mid-1930s. Collection of Autry Museum 91.221.141. Gift from the Collection of Jackie and Gene Autry (Image_ Autry Museum)
The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto presents “Rough & Ready: A History of the Cowboy Boot” exploring the story of boot craftsmanship, symbolism, and its cultural transformation from 19th century workwear to contemporary fashion.
"It's not always known that the origins of the cowboy boot stretch far beyond the American West, including innovations developed in Asia, Spain, North Africa, and present-day Mexico,” Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator at the Bata Shoe Museum, said. “Since their invention in the late 19th century, cowboy boots have embodied contradiction. They have symbolized labor and leisure, freedom and domination, as well as resistance and reclamation. Whether worn in the saddle, on screen, or in the streets, cowboy boots are a cultural touchstone, embodying both tradition and transformation in a constantly changing world."
Semmelhack makes a great point about the cowboy boot’s multiplicity. They are worn by cowboys and Indians. Colonizers and the colonized. Politicians wear them as a symbol of power. They’re also beloved in the counterculture, a symbol of resistance. Sheriffs wore them, as did outlaws. They can be worn functionally by ranchers with cow patties on the heel, or fashionably by models in lieu of high heels.
Cowboy boots have a special quality of being whatever the wearer wants them to be. To make whatever statement the wearer wants to make.
Their origins, however, reside in function.
“Cowboy boots were created to help cowboys do their work. The tall leather boot top protects the leg and the heel helps keep the foot in the stirrup. Even the use of embroidery originally had the job of stiffening the boot top,” Semmelhack said. “The pointed toe is often said to have been designed to make it easier for cowboys to slip their feet into their stirrups, but it really only became a part of cowboy boot design when pointy toes in general became popular in men’s fashion in the 1890s to 1910s.”
“Rough & Ready,” on view through October of 2026, centers on the rugged, decorative, and rebellious spirit of cowboy boots through history and pop culture. From practical and complex origins to bold fashion statements, the exhibition traces the evolution of this iconic footwear.
What about that evolution? There aren’t many cowboys anymore, but there are more cowboy boots than ever. When did fashion surpass function?
“They really only started to become more broadly popular in the 1970s. People started wearing them in the 1960s, think hippies and their appreciation of leather craftsmanship, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that fashion designers began to interrupt them making them popular for disco,” Semmelhack explained. “The Urban Cowboy moment in the early 1980s also made cowboy boots more mainstream.”
Hippies, disco, and urban cowboys. A perfect demonstration of the cowboy boot’s diversity.
Bata Shoe Museum 'Rough and Ready' exhibition installation. Courtesy BSM
On display at the museum are examples of early cowboy boots from the 1890s revealing design innovations like higher heels and machine stitching to the boot tops. Boots started getting fancy – spectacularly fancy – in the 1930s with the TV cowboy/showmen. In the 30s, cowboy boots adorned with vibrant floral and butterfly inlays became extremely popular. Men’s cowboy boots became a canvas for creativity.
A dazzling mid-30s blue bird pattern pair designed by Olsen-Stelzer boots for the Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry, are featured. Autry collected custom boots which leading designers were more than happy to provide for one of the most famous people in the country.
Later boots in the show become progressively more elaborate including a richly detailed pair from the late 1940s featuring Renaissance-inspired blossoms and gilded leather, likely crafted by Stewart-Romero out of Los Angeles, and a pair by legendary maker Charlie Dunn featuring his signature yellow leather roses commissioned in 1983 for the wife of a Dallas lawyer.
Does Semmelhack have a favorite pair from the show?
“I am extremely grateful for a pair of boots made specifically for the exhibition by master bootmaker Lee Miller and his team at Texas Traditions,” she said. “They are so beautifully made and reflect both the incredible craftsmanship of bespoke cowboy making, but they also pay homage to Miller’s mentor, master bootmaker Charlie Dunn.”
Fortunately, as with the rest of society, cowboy boot making is no longer the boys club it was in the 20th century.
“One of the biggest shifts in cowboy bootmaking today is that more and more women are getting into the craft,” Semmelhack said. “In the exhibition we feature the work of Lisa Sorrell, Flora Knight, Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin, and Emily Boksenbaum, all incredible makers.”
Will cowboy boots remain as popular throughout the 21st century as they were throughout the 20th? You bet your boots they will.
