I am crazy for the miniseries 1883. So crazy that I recently rewatched it on a flight home from Italy. Of all the Taylor Sheridan epics, this is the one that does it for me. In the opening scene, the incredibly beautiful and feisty Elsa Dutton lies in the grass, and we are treated to a closeup of not only her wind-chapped face and blond hair, but the eyelet lace that surrounds it. Moments later the scene becomes chaotic, an arrow pierces her abdomen, and the camera pans out to show her covered wagon in flames. Her group has been attacked. It is amazing.
Taylor Sheridan has made a big business of our romanticism with the American West. I am pretty game for all historical fiction drama, but I grew up watching Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Little House on the Prairie. The West won me a long time ago. But it’s not just me, or anyone else who grew up on 1970s television. Have you ever been to Jackson or any ski town in Colorado? I’m sure they still have those old-timey photo studios where you can dress up in 1800s costumes and pose in front of a rustic saloon backdrop. But who needs to pay $20 to play dress-up… you can just socialize with all the bigwigs from New York or California who are nearly always in their own costumes. Boots, big belt buckles. Two of my daughters and I took a quick ski trip to Jackson a few years ago and laughed so hard at the airport when we knew exactly which gate was ours by just seeing the people in line to board. “Oh, it’s the one where they’re all in hats.” Everyone gets to play cowboy for the week. It is awesome.
And people take it really seriously! We were recently there for an evening wedding and I still feel outfit regret. I thought my sequin skirt and t-shirt looked pretty great… but just before I ran out the door to catch the bus to the ranch, I had a notion that boots might be better than my standard evening heels. But then I got shy — no way — too on the nose. Well, it turns out that “on the nose” should have been written on the invitation. When we pulled up, it was like a black-tie rodeo. Next time I will know.
As Americans, we can all claim some “Westernness.” It is part of our history. Ralph Lauren certainly did. He was from the Bronx, the son of Belarusian immigrants, but fully embraced his own Western style. He speaks often about movies being his greatest influence — there is a wonderful Charlie Rose interview from the 90s where he describes this so beautifully — and I think many of us can relate to this. We have not all reinvented ourselves so dramatically as he has, but we all have scenes in our heads from the screen. There was Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke and the gorgeous Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid… Barbara Stanwyck in The Big Valley. They all wore dusty long skirts, pretty calico shirts, very often with lace at the collar. (The lower-cut dresses with the dainty black ribbon tied around the neck, choker-style, I recall being for the girls above the saloon.) I am crazy for this look. For the straight-up cowgirl, we’ve had a classic pearl-snap Western shirt on the line for years and years. But my current iteration of this look can be found in the Letitia. More romantic, more feminine. It reminds me of what the women of the West wore when I was staring at them on my television screen. They mixed their lace and eyelet with their rough-out wear.
But even if I take the cinema out of it, I find this shirt so useful. We had a version of it last year and I wore it so much I own two in the exact same color. The white goes with just about everything a plain, no-lace white shirt would… a little ruffle under your preppy crewneck sweater or cardigan… a menswear-style jacket to add some femininity under the lapels. But it is the black one I am really obsessed with right now. I’m crossing over from television and film to music to reference Johnny Cash, the Man in Black. But that is what makes getting dressed up feel so creative. In the two weeks I’ve owned this, I have had so much fun building outfits around it. Get the white or get the black… go ahead and create your own miniseries in your mind.
