A saloon door swings open. The tell-tale click and spin of spurs cuts through the silence. The gentle thud of angled heels. Except it’s not the wild, wild west. It’s London, and that saloon door is attached to a trendy pub that serves whipped cod’s roe and natural wine and refuses to put pound signs on its prices. Those cowboy boots are about to walk up to a bartender with a mullet and a name like “Rock” to order themselves a Vinho Verde.
Over the past few years, cowboy boots have become a scourge on our city, and indeed many others. Not only have they become the designated stadium concert costume shoe (Lana Del Rey, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, the list goes on), but they’re still being worn as a legitimate fashion choice, some seven years after their initial explosive comeback.
So, when and why exactly did it start? And for the love of Christ, when will it end?
In a 2023 Business of Fashion article entitled “Why can’t fashion kick its cowboy obsession?”, it highlighted 2018 as the first wave of the current cowboy boots trend, citing the TV show Yellowstone as a significant driving factor. Cowboy boots are a historic item with actual usage on ranches and in rural America, as is depicted in Yellowstone — but suddenly everybody wanted in on it.
Cowboy boots also started trickling onto the runways during the autumn/winter fashion weeks in February and March of 2018. First came Fendi, with its yellow crocodile-effect and monogrammed creations, then came Isabel Marant, with a selection of cowboy boots cool enough to make WWD declare, “If cowboy boots were a stock, now would be the time to buy in.”
They were succeeded by many more across the runways. This was followed by several cultural “moments” that solidified the trend: Lil Nas X’s viral country hit Old Town Road in 2019, Dua Lipa’s bucking-bronco-themed Love Again music video in 2021, and the reveal of Beyoncé’s Renaissance album cover, with that all-important glittery cowboy hat. Plus, the UK was having a country boom: In 2022, country music was the fastest-growing genre of music in the United Kingdom.
Over this time, cowboy boots went from costume shoes to streetwear gold dust to something that was being mass-produced by the likes of Pretty Little Thing and ASOS.
By 2023, they’d strutted their way right back into the costume camp by becoming the fun-footwear-of-choice among attendees at Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour and Harry Styles’s Love on Tour dates.
Normally, that level of ubiquity would herald the end of a trend cycle. It had come full circle. But not for cowboy boots. Cut to Louis Vuitton’s autumn/winter 2024 menswear show in January 2024, nine months after the BoF article was published, and what was on the catwalk? Cowboy boots. Not only was the trend refusing to die, it was alive, kicking and back on the runways all over again.
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They also maintained their chokehold over street style. An article from Vogue in February 2024 entitled “The Rise And Fall – And Rise Again – Of The Cowboy Boot” noted their presence on the pavement at Copenhagen Fashion Week last February and even advised readers on how to wear the boots without looking too “cowboy cosplay”. In the era of microtrends, cowboy boots have done what few others have managed: stuck around.
But now it’s time for the cowboy boot to die. Firstly, they’ve been around for way too long: in the time it has taken since the cowboy boot trend started to today, Donald Trump was unseated as President of the United States, impeached, found guilty at a criminal trial, and became President again.
That might seem entirely unrelated, but it’s not. Trumpism (or the lack thereof, during the Biden administration) is noted in the Business of Fashion piece as part of the reason for the boots’ initially non-partisan popularity. “In the years following Donald Trump’s presidency, the Americana aesthetic, closely associated with Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ credo, has in many ways shed its political undertones,” writer Cathaleen Chen says.
But Trump is back. Conservativism is on the rise, and the Americana aesthetic is starting to feel eerily political once again. This is a sentiment that has been noted during Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour, with fans often uncomfortable over the singer’s unflinchingly patriotic stage outfits at a time when America’s position in the world is increasingly dubious.
That doesn’t mean people are going to start burning cowboy boots en masse like they did with New Balance back in 2016, nor do I want them to, for the sake of the Ozone layer if nothing else. The American dream is dead, the shoes are overdone. Let’s move on.
1. Pirate boots
Vivienne Westwood has never not been cool, but with the burgeoning emo renaissance (it’s coming, guys, the return of the Alexander McQueen skull scarf has heralded it), pictures of Viv’s classic pirate boots have started doing the rounds again. Once worn by the likes of Kate Moss and Sienna Miller in the 2000s, these strappy creations have the exact kind of almost-ugly je ne sais quoi required to become cult in late 2025. Similar buckled styles are also available from Isabel Marant, Miu Miu and Steve Madden.
Pirate boot, £650, viviennewestwood.com
2. Moto boots
Right, right, settle down. I know these are already popular. But their time is not done. The Moto boot is set to stick around. They still featured heavily on the runways for AW25, plus fashion-forward celebrities like Dua Lipa and Charli xcx can’t get enough (see: Lipa wearing them with shorts and an oversized graphic tee to BST with Callum Turner this month). You still have time to invest, and there’s no better time than now, before they hit a price peak ahead of autumn.
Mid shaft biker boots, £322.50, ganni.com
3. Equestrian boots
While these may feel a little “rah”, designers are offering stylish takes on the more traditional equestrian boots, like the heeled, buckled iterations from Miu Miu’s autumn 2025 ready-to-wear collection, or the sharper silhouette being sold by Toteme right now. Just as biker boots should often be paired with softer, more feminine outfits, equestrian boots should be treated to a similar dichotomy. It doesn’t always have to look all helmet and riding crop.
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Leather riding boots, £162, cos.com
