Take a look at the current shoes of Occidental and even the most inept fashion observer will see that among the familiar and savvy collection of Converses, Sambas and Birkenstocks, one shoe sticks out: the cowboy boot. And, according to the Business of Fashion, it’s rapidly gaining popularity.
Rianna Baecher (first year) said she is a proud constituent of the cowboy boot party.
“I just… [have] always loved boots,” Baecher said. “There’s something about, like, how high they go up on my leg that’s really fun.”
Baecher, who grew up in Long Island, said her boots were originally a statement of independence from the monotonous fashion scene at her high school.
“There [were] not a lot of people that wanted to explore fashion,” Baecher said. “Not that that’s a bad thing, but people just weren’t, like, excited about fashion … [My boots were] my way of being sort of rebellious. Like a cool cowgirl.”
Baecher said a trip to a Colorado Boot Barn in fifth grade was her first source of inspiration because of the vast diversity and craftsmanship of each and every boot.
“I wanted to touch all of [the boots],” Baecher said. “The materials were so nice.”
According to Baecher, another big part of her inspiration came from her memories of spending summers in the South with her grandparents, who live in Durham, North Carolina.
“People were so friendly there, just like a completely different vibe from New York,” Baecher said. “That [drew] me towards Southern culture.”
Lauren Chin (junior) from Seattle said she got her boots sometime during the Spring semester. Chin said she was inspired by her fellow classmates.
“There was a friend who graduated from Oxy last year … Talia Kurtz,” Chin said. “And she had this awesome pair of cowboy boots that were also pretty untraditional, and they had hearts and stars on them.”
Chin said that cowboy boots can be uncomfortable to wear, especially on Occidental’s hilly campus.
“Strictly from a functionality standpoint, the way that I walk is different,” Chin said. “It’s not like sneakers when I’m walking up to Norris or up on upper campus, it’s kind of a strut with these shoes on.”
Nevertheless, Chin said she enjoys wearing her boots, despite not claiming any deeper connection to them.
“I love my boots,” Chin said. “I don’t think they’re part of, like, my identity, but they’re very fun to wear.”
Renn Stearns (junior) said he is intimately connected to the heritage of his cowboy boots, hailing from Missoula, Montana.
“It is a thing in Montana, so I’ve had a long and storied history with the cowboy boot,” Stearns said.
Part of that long and storied history, Stearns said, is his relationship with his late grandmother. According to Stearns, his grandmother was a lifelong Montanan and was his cowboy boots supplier.
“She actually, in fact, has bought every single pair of cowboy boots that I’ve ever owned until now,” Stearns said. “Every pair of cowboy boots, she [made] a point of, sort of, sponsoring it for us. It’s a special connection piece between her grandkids and her.”
Stearns said that his grandmother took inspiration from Annie Oakley, an American cowgirl sharpshooter of the Wild West.
“She always told us that she looked up to Annie Oakley,” Stearns said.
Oakley served as a role model for female pioneers looking to push further into male-dominated areas, such as sports or marksmanship. According to Stearns, his grandmother was also a pioneer for female representation, as one of the first women to enter into the male-dominated corporate world of higher education in Montana.
“She ended up as the Commissioner of Higher Education in Montana, so she was in charge of all the public universities and colleges,” Stearns said. “I can confidently say [she] was a big trailblazer, just generally taking the world by the horns and making your mark on it.”
According to Stearns, his cowboy boots now serve as a connection to both his late grandmother and to his hometown.
“She’s been a very big part of my life, especially as far as the cowboy boot is concerned,” Stearns said. “[The boot is] an homage, and sort of just an expression of who I am, how I grew up, and where I’m from.”
Contact Noah Kim at nkim4@oxy.edu
