Cowboy Boots Are Gen Z’s Favorite Shoe – Glossy
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After a year where the biggest fashion statement everyone made was around their tracksuit of choice, trends with personality are finally returning. Example: the cowboy boot. Although western style boots come and go out of fashion every few years. They have been worn by everyone since princess diana To ASAP Rocky. This time around, the trend is fueled by Gen Z and their love of savings.
“It wasn’t until this summer that the style started to gain popularity, and a lot of their success can be attributed to TikTok,” said Kristin Breakell, content strategist at Trendalytics. The #cowboyboots hashtag has 139.7 million views, showing the scale of the trend.
It girls like Devon Lee Carlson and Lily Rose Depp were early adopters. Depp wore a full western look for her 18th birthday, in 2017, and Carlson posed in cowboy boots on Instagram the same year.
Fast forward to 2021, and TikTok is full of videos on how to style the trend and which versions available on Amazon are best. TikToker Lauren Wolfe (530,000 subscribers on TikTok) has one of the most popular videos, with over 325,000 views. In it, she says, “If there’s one thing I own that people will compliment me on the street or ask me where I got them from… it’s my cowboy boots.” She then reveals that she loves them so much that she bought the style in three colorways. His cost less than $ 100, starting at Roper via Amazon Prime.
Trendy brands like Jeffrey campbell ($ 235) and Dolce Vita ($ 240) released all-white cowboy boots, which were especially popular. The hashtag #whitecowboyboots alone has nearly a million views, with heaps of videos dedicated to the sub-trend.
Designer brands like Isabel Marant also sell cowboy boots, but they often cost around $ 1,000 or more. Many younger customers are opting for used versions, which can be found between $ 65 and $ 250 on Depop, the Gen Z’s preferred resale market. Cowboy boots currently rank in the top 50 of research of trendy products, with around 30,000 unique users searching for the term in September alone.
In one month of August video, TikToker Annie Paventy (124,000 subscribers on TikTok) recommends wearing cowboy boots in place of white sneakers, showing their versatility. “It’s so simple, chic and fair…” she says, as her voice fades and street style photos parade behind her.
Cecie Baranyk, a 22-year-old student at Indiana University at Bloomington, started donning cowboy boots in 2019, inspired by her 25-year-old sister, whom she calls her “fashion icon”.
“[My sister] was doing the western thing a bit, getting into the pandemic. And I wasn’t quite there yet, but I thought it was cool. She liked fits, collars, cowboy boots and all that. And now I’m dabbling in the western world. With cowboy boots, you always have a pair in your wardrobe. But right now, I have about three. They are fun and enhance an outfit in a way that a regular leather boot wouldn’t.
And the Western trend goes far beyond just boots, Baranyk said. After noticing her sister’s boots, it was Landes Hutson, an Indianapolis-based vintage seller on Depop, who “pushed her to the limit.”
“[She] wears a cool bolo tie with a little cowboy boot on it… And then she started making a bunch of old vintage ladies’ underpants and little bloomer shorts and things, and put them on big cowboy boots. I thought it was the coolest thing there was – this masculine, worker booty, but then with these beautiful contrasts of laces and delicate fabrics.
As for why cowboy boots are having a moment, Breakell suggested a correlation with how the pandemic has changed the lives of young people. “Over the past year and a half, young people have left the cities in an attempt to escape the crowds and save money,” she said. “Inspired by their new surroundings, many were able to experiment with different styles that they are now bringing back to the city. For some, the Western style signifies a kind of freedom and transports them to the great outdoors of the US border – themes especially relevant after the lockdown. ”
And, they sort of go with everything.
Additional reporting by Nitya Rao.
TikTok on the track
TikToker Wisdom Kaye, alias @ wisdm8 (6.8 million followers), made her debut as a model on the Balmain catwalk on Wednesday, as part of the “Balmain Festival, an annual celebration of the best of food, music and fashion that is held in Paris ”. The show was broadcast live on TikTok’s own TikTok account. In Kaye’s Instagram post, he wrote, “Sometimes I sit, sometimes I walk.
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There really is no limit to collaborations these days; two brands, no matter how dissimilar, can find a way to team up. The latest: designer Susan Alexandra, whose pearl bags have become “it” items, and Philips Sonicare, known for its premium toothbrushes. The duo have teamed up to create accessories to appeal to a younger audience around the Philips One toothbrush ($ 25- $ 40), a more affordable item than Philips’ celebrity favorite electric toothbrush, which is $ 350. “Philips Sonicare has continued this partnership to reach a new demographic of young adults who seek to put their health and individuality first, especially when on the go,” said Marci El Deiry, head of oral health marketing at Philips, in a press release. The resulting collaboration is incredibly adorable, consisting of a tote bag, toiletry bag, and dazzled keychain. And by purchasing one of the three accessories, the buyer can trade in a Philips One toothbrush.
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