Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 22, 1992 TAG: 9203180255
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCINE PARNES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In Milan, designer Rifat Ozbek thought West looked best when paired with a pinstripe pantsuit. Karl Lagerfeld, designing for Fendi, combined swimwear with fringed chaps and cowboy boots, all in terry cloth.
In Paris, Thierry Mugler put rubberized chaps over hot pants. Cattle horns protruded from the hip of a black sheath.
Back home, Perry Ellis designer Marc Jacobs dressed cowgirls in fringed leather miniskirts with cowboy boots, 10-gallon hats and leather gauntlets. Prairie skirts were buoyed by crinolines, and denim shirts were knotted at the midriff.
Anna Sui went hogwild over gingham, with gingham boots and a matching shirtdress, while Isaac Mizrahi paired flounced gingham square dance dresses with cashmere sweaters and leather baseball jackets. Long squaw skirts looked modern with black leather jackets. He also created a sexy urban cowgirl with white ruffled pantaloons and a black silk ballskirt embroidered with horseshoes.
You'll need a Texas oil well to pay for it all.
A long skirt hand-painted with cactus from Perry Ellis is $7,000. Cowboy boots from Justin, specially made for Perry Ellis with poppies, palm trees or sunbursts, are $500; Mizrahi's leather bustier and long black silk faille ruffled skirt, $3,200 total; his gingham do-si-do shirtdress with ruffled hem, $725, and leather corset belt, $320. Ozbek's black wool pinstriped suit with fringe is $1,200; his black and white pony print denim jacket and jeans, $680.
But you won't have to look far for something in your price range. Stores are stocking up, even with the real stuff.
"When the economy is on a down cycle, sales in Western apparel always seem to pick up," says Carol Edwards, publicity manager for J.C. Penney Co. in Dallas. "And that's what people like to hang their hat on, since it connotes a very secure Americana feeling."
So if you're wild about Western wear but don't want to rob a stagecoach to buy it, go authentic.
Justin boots start at $120, then go for Wrangler five-pocket cowboy-cut jeans, style 14MWZG. They're only about $25 - cheaper than other leading brands - and they're the official competition jeans of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
Designed with cowpokes in mind, the jeans have boot-cut legs, smooth rivets that won't scratch your saddle, and pockets high on the hip for comfort on horseback. Real cowboys "stack" their Wranglers. Translated, that means they buy them longer so the pants legs graze the instep when they're high in the saddle.
A Wrangler denim jacket is about $30, and a long-sleeved cotton shirt with yoke and button-down collar is about $25 to tuck in, tie at the waist or wear loose.
Others may not be authentic, but they offer the look.
Express has a long-sleeved white cotton eyelet tie-front shirt, $60, or a sleeveless white cotton knit tie-top shirt, $19. Philip Monaghan, executive vice president of marketing, says it has a country feel when teamed with denim.
"You take your own jeans, add something new like this season's tie-front blouse, accessorize with something Western like a belt or cowboy boots," he says, "and you've got the look."
Greg Blow, associate fashion director of Sears in Chicago, says a lot of Western looks can come pieces already in your closet "like gingham, denim and chambray. You can make fresh fashion news by resurrecting a bandana as a kerchief or reviving your old cowboy boots."
Mariana Keros of The Limited in Columbus, Ohio, agrees. "You can take silver accessories and a basic denim or chambray shirt and create a whole Western look around it without spending any money."
You can also sew your own. Dressmaker pattern books are showing everything from cowboy shirts to square dance skirts and fringed vests. Whip something up and add affordable accessories like leather belts, jeans jackets and cowboy hats and boots.
But remember: A little goes a long way.
"With a printed scarf, a Western belt with silver tip and cowboy boots, you've got the feeling," says Barbara Bierman, a publicity manager at J.C. Penney Co. in Dallas.
Penney stores have brown tooled leather cowboy belts, $14 to $16; button covers with buffalo nickels or longhorn cattle, $14 for a set of four; straw cowboy hats, $30; and cotton bandanas in white with red or navy, $1.50.
Cowboys and horses mosey over a group of cotton separates from Sharon Young. With red or white background, the group includes a blazer, $160; vest, $57; skirt, $74, and shorts, $65.
by CNB