Bella Hadid: Cowgirl Dressing Without the Costume

Western dressing has spent the past few years being pulled apart, polished up and handed back to fashion in increasingly elaborate forms. Bella Hadid has tried plenty of them herself, from corsets and chaps to prairie dresses and turquoise jewelry. But one of her most convincing cowgirl looks is also one of the least theatrical.

In New York in September 2024, Bella stepped out in a fitted black pinstripe shirt, dark flared jeans, a cowboy hat and the kind of belt buckle that could probably be spotted from across the street. The shirt was by Susamusa, while the street version of the look paired it with Frame denim, Kemo Sabe boots and hat, and a Tylie Malibu shoulder bag. Nothing here needs a ranch to make sense. That is exactly why it works.

The shirt and jeans do most of the work before anything recognisably Western enters the picture. Bella Hadid wears the pinstriped shirt close to the body and leaves it open low enough at the neckline to lose any association with officewear. Beneath it, dark indigo flares follow the hips and thighs before widening over the boot. It is a very old jeans-and-shirt equation, only the proportions have been sharpened.

Bootcut denim is especially good at making Western dressing feel normal because it was built around practicality in the first place: the wider hem leaves room for a boot underneath. On Bella, that function becomes styling. The jeans stay long, the shoe mostly disappears, and the leg keeps going.

For a daily version, some options might help would spend the least effort hunting for something explicitly “cowgirl.” A fitted charcoal or black shirt from COS, Mango or Massimo Dutti will do the job, especially if the fabric has a faint stripe or texture. For the jeans, Frame already gives the original reference, but Levi’s, Wrangler or Abercrombie can recreate the same close-through-the-thigh flare at a much easier price. The quickest way to make a cowboy hat look like a costume is to give it too many friends.

Bella saves the obvious Western codes for accessories.

The black Kemo Sabe hat is clean and almost severe: no feathers, decorative band or exaggerated distressing. It simply gives the silhouette its unmistakable Western punctuation. The belt does the opposite. Studded brown leather and an oversized trophy-style buckle pull attention straight to the waist, breaking the dark shirt and denim with a warm strip of leather and metal. At the Window to the West event that day, Bella wore a competition buckle she had actually earned, which makes the usual fashion phrase “statement belt” feel slightly inadequate.

That combination is worth stealing more than any literal head-to-toe cowboy outfit. One hat and one serious belt are enough. A structured black felt hat from Stetson gives the same sharp outline, while vintage and Western stores are often better territory for belts than conventional fashion retailers; a buckle should look a little too large and a little too specific. If it seems capable of starting a conversation before you do, it is probably the right size.

The brown leather introduces wear, warmth and something slightly imperfect against all that dark denim. Western style looks better when every surface does not appear freshly delivered from the same showroom.

The final pieces make the outfit feel even less like dress-up. Cognac cowboy boots appear only at the hem, giving just enough contrast beneath the jeans without asking to become the focal point. Bella’s Kemo Sabe pair has the proper pointed shape and warm suede finish, but the formula is forgiving: Ariat, Steve Madden and vintage cowboy boots can all work once the jeans are long enough to cover most of the shaft.

Then there is the bag, a burgundy Tylie Malibu shoulder style with rhinestone detailing. It is arguably the smartest interruption in the whole world because it does not need to be Western at all. The softer shape and deep red tone belong just as easily to an early-2000s city wardrobe. That slight disconnect keeps everything from turning into a perfectly themed set.

A suede or worn-leather shoulder bag in burgundy, tobacco or dark brown would recreate the same effect without chasing an exact copy. Coach, Madewell and Ralph Lauren usually sit in useful territory here; vintage is even better if the leather already looks as though it has been somewhere.

Bella Hadid’s cowgirl wardrobe therefore are way more interesting now than when the aesthetic first became a headline. The references have stopped looking newly acquired. A cowboy hat no longer announces a transformation, and the boots no longer require a trend name to explain themselves. Somewhere between fashion fantasy and actual habit, Western dressing simply became part of the way she gets dressed.

The most convincing style eras rarely announce when they have become permanent. They just stop looking like eras.