In 2024, Western fashion plunged into the mainstream like never before. Eras tour show-goers donned sparkly boots by the thousands. And Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album had felt cowboy hats flying off the shelves. But Isha Nicole, Senior VP of Marketing at Boot Barn, cautions the Western craze is no flash in the pan.
“Last year, celebrities such as Beyoncé helped to catapult Western influence into the limelight — inviting the masses to participate in the romanticism of the American spirit,” she says. “But make no mistake, western is not a trend. Western is an iconic American culture.”
Now, Nicole sees the movement coming away from celebrity-driven fads like Swift’s rhinestones and Beyoncé’s stark hats and toward two major aesthetics. First, she clocks a resurgence in boho, as seen in collections from Isabel Marant, Chloé, ALAÏA, and YSL. Think peasant tops, flowing skirts, and crochet with dramatic fringe. “We’ll see a soft mix of coquette and boho, leaning more refined and sleek than the boho collections from last decade,” she says. “Secondly, we’ll see a new era romance aesthetic, mixing a hint of grunge with a dash of sex appeal with romanticism.”
Within those vibes, Boot Barn is looking for animal print boots, cow hide everything, and patent leathers. “With the Y2K aesthetic continuing in 2025, we’ll see a push of red fabrications with sheen like patent leathers or metallics in footwear, channeling the bold aesthetics of the early 2000s, such as in Britney Spears’s iconic red ensemble in her ‘Oops!…I Did It Again’ video,” Nicole adds.
“To the world, western is a trend. But to the cowboy community, western isn’t going anywhere. The west encapsulates a feeling of untamed freedom — it is a beautiful escape into a world of possibilities.” —Isha Nicole, Senior VP of Marketing at Boot Barn
For festival fashion, she expects the Y2K aesthetic to play here as well, taking inspiration from Coyote Ugly, as well as a mix of sleek, updated boho.