How the West Was Worn: Bustles And Buckskins On The Wild Frontier

by Chris Enss

Fashion that was in vogue in the East was highly desirable to pioneers during the frontier period of the American West. It was also extraordinarily difficult to obtain, often impractical, and sometimes the clothing was just not durable enough for the men and women who were forging new homes for themselves in the West. Full hoopskirts were of little use in a soddy on the prairie, and chaps and spurs were a vital part of the cowboy's equipment.

In this book, author Chris Enss examines the fashion that shaped the frontier through short essays; brief clips from letters, magazines, and other period sources; and period illustrations demonstrating the sometimes bizarre, often beautiful, and frequently highly inventive ways of dressing oneself in the Old West.

Genres: History, Westerns, Fashion, Nonfiction, Costume History

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Alaina · Rating 1 out of 5]

The subject is promising, but Enss fails to deliver on nearly every count. She may be a talented screenwriter, but she's in way over her head as a costume historian. Enss' attempt to capture the humor, outrageousness, and individuality of frontier dress falls flat with every poorly written sentence. The appeal of her subject comes through only in the newspaper articles and diary and letter excerpts, which are plentiful but still too few, and the wonderful photographs and printed ephemera included on every page.

The book is nothing more than a well-illustrated freshman term paper. Enss mixes decades indiscriminately: the new and untried pioneers of the 1840s sit side-by-side with the extravagant nouveau riche of the 1890s. Enss frequently cites the lack of hoopskirts as being evidence of western free-spiritedness, ignoring the fact that no one, west or east, wore hoopskirts by the late 1880s (and incorrectly identifies the farming women in a photo from the mid 1890s as having "hooped skirts", page 68)

The book lacks documentation of any kind, which is typical of a non-scholarly book of this sort, but becomes problematic when the reader is faced with such incredible statements as "many emigrants were forced to wear clothing of the opposite sex. (p. 69)", "In 1860 stockings came primarily in two colors, black and magenta...(p.101-2), and "Nightclothes of the time were designed to hide the shape of the body and to prevent unmarried men from thinking immoral thoughts about unmarried ladies." (p. 71). And did you know that Andrew Johnson designed a variation on the Prince Albert coat in 1827, when the not-yet-prince Albert was eight years old? (p.102)

Enss is careless with her words, as in her description of Adah Menken in 1863, 75 years before DuPont invented nylon, "Adorned in a flesh-colored body nylon..." (p. 99) Perhaps I am being over-critical, but I see this sloppiness as being emblematic of the entire book. Clearly Enss never consulted a costume historian, as she incorrectly identifies three of the five images on pp. 93-95 as either of day or evening hairstyles. That is only one example of the many outright wrong statements throughout the book.

I can sometimes recommend poorly researched books for their great images or entertainment value, but I cannot do even that for this book. It makes a fascinating subject boring and mangles facts so egregiously that we can only hope that it quickly goes out of print and off the library shelves.

[Cassie Bateson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of oversights and she didn't include pictures like you think she would. For example, when talking about hats she describes the most popular style but there aren't any photos. That's rampant in this book, I assumed there would be more photos to go along with things. She also left out pertinent details imo, like the corset only being used to make the waist smaller... It also helped make the weight of your giant skirts bearable/comfortable but she didn't mention that whatsoever. Just generally not nearly as good or well thought out as I thought it was going to be

[Margo Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A non-fiction book about historical clothing trends in the 19th-century ‘Wild West’ which delves into clothing construction, hats, perfumes, gloves, boots, and so on. It is written in an engaging way, and includes plenty of illustrations, newspaper excerpts, tall tales and historical advertisements to enliven the subject. The photograph of children, some barefoot, outside a ‘sod hut’ school is a sharp dose of realism, after the fashion plates of crinolines and bustles. The historical photographs of people off-duty at frontier forts are also fascinating.

Favourite random nuggets: the original design of the Stetson cowboy hat had a waterproof lining that meant it could double up as a bucket; some women sewed sachets of herbs, like cloves and nutmeg, into their underclothes as home-made perfume; and before he was President, Andrew Johnson worked as a tailor.

I also liked the anecdotes about ‘legendary trendsetters’, including Elizabeth ‘Baby Doe’ Tabor who “paraded down the main street of town wearing a sapphire-blue costume with dyed-to-match shoes” and Oscar Wilde who visited Leadville, Colorado in 1882 wearing “a velvet knicker suit” (one with baggy breeches, known as knickerbockers in the UK – had to google it).

A few quibbles – it would have been helpful to have footnotes and an index, and the chapter about 19th-century Native American clothing feels like it only skims the surface of a potentially huge topic. Overall though, this was an informative and entertaining read.

[Amber Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tries to go over too much territory without enough depth or organization. It didn’t always show pictures of the clothes mentioned like the “Cossack robe” dress. There were also one page fictional bits I think should have been dropped. I think the section on Native Americans should have been taken out too as it’s just too generalized. Clothing of Native Americans has a lot of regional differences and alterations caused by contact with Westerners.
There’s also no mention of “soiled doves” who by the way, didn’t dress in cancan skirts and feathers.
I would have liked to see a more detailed account of how clothing changed throughout the active “frontier” years with more of an eye to professions, regions, ethnic styles and photos of historical items of clothing that have survived.
It’s not a totally bed book, but it could have been better.

[Susan Greene · Rating 2 out of 5]

very simplistic writing. The "journal writings" were newspaper descriptions. It is a book about what was worn, yet there were no pictural evidence in the book. I kept going to google to find images of articles of clothing mentioned.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read and resource, I just wish there were more pictures to illustrate the text descriptions.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to read Chris Enss. This bood was very interesting and kept my attention with the side stories of the "fashionista's" of the day. She covered the all of the man, woman, and child styles and the differences in wild frontier between social standings and even between territory and class standings. Entertaining and interesting.

[Ericka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and learned quite a bit even though this is a topic I've followed for 20 years or so. Some chapters read a little slow as I wasn't as interested in the information, but it was still fascinating. The rugged West, like where I live, still follow some of the same rules: comfort and utility come first but we still like to see what's new.

[Zoe Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just what I was looking for as an author. It has great descriptions of the clothing, patterns and fabric type as well as accessories. I like how the book was organized between city woman and frontier, cowboys and miners, etc. The newspaper excerpts and photos from the time period were a nice touch. Highly recommend.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with cited anecdotes and black and white images, this book gives a decently thorough account of what people wore in the "Wild West" as well as the origins of several types of garments.

[Bookclubcheerleader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haven't had this much fun since I took historical costume in college. Great read!