Western Fashion Keeps Coming Back - What about the Wild West?

As the falling leaves grow and pile up on West Village sidewalks, so too do the number of cowboy boots crunching them on the way to dinner. Denim on denim, barn jackets and fringe are filling up urban streets and fashion weeks another season in a row. But while New York runways are celebrating a Western aesthetic, the muse itself is under siege of climate change, policy rollbacks and a dilution of cultural motifs. National Parks across the country are under threat, and our wide open spaces so romanticized in American culture, are shrinking faster than ever before. How can we pair next year's revival of cowboy boots with a greater acknowledgement and appreciation of the American West itself?