Jordan Wylie

I first heard “Dime Store Cowgirl” by Kacey Musgraves in the backseat of a car, on the way to the lake, my senior year of high school. I knew I was going to fashion school, but I didn’t really know what that was going to look like for me. Looking out the window at the Texas sky turning shades of orange and pink, I listened to Kacey sing I'm just a dime store cowgirl / That's all I'm ever gonna be / You can take me out of the country / But you can't take the country out of me. That rang so true for me.

As a Texan moving to New York City, I felt so caught in the middle. To everyone back home I was a prissy city girl, and to people here, I seemed a little too Texas to fit right in. In a lot of ways, I was the dime store cowgirl. I wanted to stay true to and explore my roots, but I also wanted to step into my next chapter. Caught between these two different worlds, I asked myself: What determines this authenticity that the American West is so obsessed with?

Dime store cowgirl can mean a handful of different things. It can point out cheapness or lack of class, and it can refer to outfit or persona, but largely it calls out a lack of authenticity. In one way or another, calling someone a dime store cowgirl is calling out something that they don’t have. On the other side of the coin, calling someone a dime store cowgirl also recognizes an interest in Western culture and an effort to be a part of the community in one way or another. There is duality to the idea of the dime store cowgirl, because on one hand her lack of authenticity can be damaging to Western culture, but on the other we need her spirit, interest, and passion for the continuity of the culture. There needs to be a return to valuing artistry and craft that have existed for so long, but there is also a need for Western fashion to modernize while remaining authentic. The purpose of my collection is to bridge the gap between the two sides of the cowgirl coin by designing modern Western wear that remains rooted in authenticity.