‘Yellowstone,’ Dua Lipa bring Western style to the big city

December 19, 2022

These boots are made for gawking.

Hunter Shires, 25, didn’t mind a bit when the sound of his cowboy boots click-clacking on the Midtown pavement during a recent morning commute raised more than a few eyebrows.

Making a statement with the pair of black leather beauties nabbed from a Park Slope vintage store for $150, he said, was the whole point.

“Cowboy boots in New York City make zero
f—ing sense, but I think that’s why they work,” Shires, who lives in Brooklyn, works in marketing for HBO Max and runs the fashion blog High End Homo, told The Post. “Going off-grid is hot, post-pandemic — people are dressing like it.”

To complete the unexpected look, he showed up to his office — ready to lasso his laptop and sell ads — in a rodeo-ready get-up, including a pair of wide-leg Wrangler jeans.

Hunter Shires, 25, in his $150 black leather cowboy boots he found at a vintage shop in Park Slope. With corporate office wardrobes feeling like the wild West in the post-pandemic, he says he wears them to work for comfort meets urban cowboy style.

The West is winning over the wardrobes of fashionable New Yorkers. Think boots and jeans on the subway, and Beth Dutton-inspired prairie dresses in the office, a cowboy hat-tip to the tough-as-nails heroine played by Kelly Reilly in Kevin Costner’s popular Paramount series “Yellowstone.”

The show, which follows a family of ranchers fighting to protect their land has spurred a fashion movement, with brands like Seattle-based Filson selling a Yellowstone collection, including a $995 women’s wool trapper coat.

Kevin Costner's rough and tough cowboy patriarch character John Dutton on the Paramount epic "Yellowstone" has set a modern style standard for city slickers subscribing to an urban cowboy aesthetic. — Kevin Costner’s rough and tough cowboy patriarch character John Dutton on the Paramount epic “Yellowstone” has set a modern style standard for city slickers subscribing to an urban cowboy aesthetic.

The look, known as Westerncore, has now gone seriously high end. MiuMiu sells $1,850 silver-toed black leather cowboy boots, while Ganni hawks $725, knee-high embroidered numbers. There’s a $700 calf leather pair from Anine Bing and $1,100 mirror metallic ankle boots from Celine . Boots are a big deal — the hashtag #cowboyboots on TikTok has garnered 566.8 million views, with some devotees sporting metallic silver, pink and lime green boots on city pavement.

Lauren Gentry, 26, who works in fashion and lives in the East Village, stepped on an R train heading to her Midtown office earlier this month in knee-high black Vagabond cowboy boots and an oversized Lioness shearling coat, channeling Beth Dutton, the headstrong “Yellowstone” character who Gentry said reminds her of her grandmother — determined, yet feminine.

"Westerncore," dressing like the great American West, is having a moment with city folks slipping into cowboy boots and wide-legged denim, as seen in the Paramount drama series "Yellowstone." Gentry was instantly attracted to Kelly Reilly's character Beth Dutton (far left) for her strong willed character and feminine prairie chic looks. — “Westerncore,” dressing like the great American West, is having a moment with city folks slipping into cowboy boots and wide-legged denim, as seen in the Paramount drama series “Yellowstone.” Gentry was instantly attracted to Kelly Reilly’s character Beth Dutton (far left) for her strong willed character and feminine prairie chic looks.

Lauren Gentry, 26, wears a pair of Lucchese cowboy boots her grandmother purchased for her. "I was always more interested in the look and feel of the boots as opposed to the actual purpose of them," Gentry, who works in fashion, said. — Lauren Gentry, 26, wears a pair of Lucchese cowboy boots gifted from her grandmother. “I was always more interested in the look and feel of the boots as opposed to the actual purpose of them,” Gentry, who works in fashion, said.

“She was a total cowgirl and owned horses, and eventually taught me how to ride. She gifted me a pair of her beautiful authentic Lucchese boots,” Gentry told The Post. Gentry styled the gorgeous hand-me-downs with a sky blue, long sleeve cutout maxi dress for a recent rooftop Manhattan birthday dinner.

While Gentry has had a bit of experience with ranch life, visiting her grandmother as a little girl in Colorado in the summer and riding horses, she said she subscribes to more of an urban cowgirl aesthetic these days.

“I was always more interested in the look and feel of the boots as opposed to the actual purpose of them,” she said. When she started watching “Yellowstone” a few years ago, she was “an instant fan” and wanted to adapt the prairie aesthetic to the concrete jungle.

“Whenever I put on my boots I literally feel the strong power of women like Beth Dutton and my grandmother — my source of strength and style,” Gentry said.

Lex Kelly, 26, of Park Slope, never thought she’d be caught dead in a pair of cowboy boots. Now she’s strutting around her office and wearing them to Manhattan dive bars after seeing them sported by other urbanites on social media. Kelly’s favorite way to pair her white and nude embellished Steve Madden boots is with a mini dress, or with a blazer and jeans for a day at the office.

Lex Kelly, 26, who lives in Park Slope sports her white and tan embellished Steve Madden cowboy boots up subway stairs and around Manhattan dive bars. She leaned into the trend after seeing the urban cowboy trend flooding her social media feed. — Lex Kelly, 26, who lives in Park Slope sports her white and tan embellished Steve Madden cowboy boots up subway stairs and around Manhattan dive bars. She leaned into the trend after seeing urbanites in cowboy boots flooding her social media feed.

“I used to associate cowboy boots with being on a ranch somewhere riding a horse, but once I saw someone wearing them as street style, I was completely influenced,” Kelly told The Post.

Fashionistas have galloped toward the trend. Resale marketplaces like Poshmark have seen sales for Western-style boots surge 25% year-over-year in 2022 and as much as 338% in the past five years; while cowboy hat sales have soared 37% in 2022 and 395% in the past five years, Chloe Baffert, Poshmark’s head of merchandising, told The Post, noting that location is no longer a factor when it comes to dressing like the Wild West.

“Westerncore has come to a rise and has been citified by New Yorkers, by taking key elements of the trend and pairing them with wardrobe staples to avoid looking like you’re in a costume,” Baffert said. Pairing low-rise jeans with a vintage concho belt and oversized sweater, for example, is the perfect example of an urban cowboy look, she said.

Hunter Shires styled his black leather cowboy boots with a wide leg pair of Wrangler jeans. The "Westerncore" trend, he says, is a form of "escape dressing," fashion finds that reflect a dream destination, like being in Wyoming or Montana. — Shires styled his black leather cowboy boots with a wide leg pair of Wrangler jeans. The “Westerncore” trend, he says, is a form of “escape dressing,” fashion finds that reflect a dream destination, like being in Wyoming or Montana.

“In addition to classic colors and fabrics, we are seeing the cowboy boot take on a new iteration over the past few years with fashion over function with bright metallic colors,” Baffert said.

Shires calls Westerncore a form of “escape dressing” — fashioning oneself in staples that reflect a longing to be in mountainous states such as Montana or Wyoming, not a fluorescent-lit office space just off Times Square.

As Shires put it: “Everyone’s like, ‘I live in New York City, but mentally I want to be in Wyoming on a ranch.’ ”