Here's why you're seeing that pink feathered 10-gallon hat everywhere.
It's also, as Lee tells me, a "feeling" — one that lives somewhere between nostalgia for the past and unabashed hope for the future, which she calls "the sweet spot of living in between." For a demographic like Gen Z that's come of age amid unprecedented uncertainty — and shoulders the burden of forging a tenable future through it all — the space cowgirl is an unexpectedly poignant respite.
"One of the earliest seeds we've seen of this aesthetic was Selena Quintanilla, whose fashion influence is still felt today," says, a 28-year-old playwright, songwriter and creator in Chicago. "She took the Western styles from Texas, inspired by the vaquero, and incorporated hyper-feminine moments of bedazzled bras, belt buckles and the iconic glitter jumpsuit. She's the blueprint of the current trends we're seeing.