Women in Western Fashion

Finding a fashionable shirt that is also functional for all things horse-related isn’t easy. Women that ride or are inspired by Western fashion are often on the move, swinging a rope, lifting hay, saddling horses, and more, which means a shirt must be suitable day to day—but they also want it to look good. That is exactly why Colleen Tuohy, Alicia Enochs, and Sarah McEntire Prather all sought to design their own lines of Western shirts for women. Here’s what inspired these three designers, who wears their shirts, and what makes this apparel wearable for women. 

Custom Collars Boutique

In a horse show class of 10 to 20 horses, standing out is hard to do, which is why Alicia Enochs and her mother Debbie Linville began to create their own horse show clothing. Competing in hunter under saddle and Western classes, they wanted classic designs with interesting details, and colors that complemented their required pieces, like a cowboy hat and chaps. In 2012, Custom Collars Boutique was born. 

The duo focused on custom creations for a long time before expanding their business to include ready-to-wear shirts and accompanying vests, all made to sizes derived from past customers. 

“I’d measured hundreds of customers, so I compiled them into a spreadsheet,” Enochs recalls. “I wanted to know our customer and how they were built. That is how we made our own sizing for our shirts and the fit. In our ranch shirt line, we love to incorporate our performance stretch fabrics. When you’re in the saddle navigating a ranch riding pattern, you need fabrics that move with you. Our goal has been for our ranch shirts to be cute and functional. Over the years, that has been a big focus for us: that women can move, feel good, and ride without being restricted by the clothes.”

The fabrics are functional and fashionable, especially when adorned with the patterns and yoke stitching found on the ranch line of shirts. Pearl snaps, double collars with contrasting but complementary patterns and more are chosen to pair with leather chaps and felt hats. Often, riders bring hats, saddle pads or chaps into the booth at a show to select, or custom-design, a new shirt. 

“We want to know the color of your horse and talk it through with the customer, to make it fun and thorough,” Enochs says. “I think it’s fun to have flair in your clothes! We take detailed custom measurements to ensure the perfect fit. We also want the customer to have fun designing a new piece. Even when you buy something off the rack, I think you feel more confident when you feel like an individual and feel like you look great.”

The mother-daughter duo is constantly coming up with new designs, but they steer clear of bling. A classic look is what inspires confidence, and that is what they offer other riders. 

Wyatt Outdoors

Colleen Tuohy is no stranger to runway, but today, instead of watching models walk in New York City, she sees her shirts on women fly fishing and riding horses in Montana. For her, that is a dream come true. 

She started working in the fashion industry 20 years ago, shaping hats for Kemo Sabe, before moving to work for Ralph Lauren, eventually based in New York City. One thing that “broke her heart” was watching women unable to find a size that fit them, or a piece to fit their lifestyle. 

“I’d go in a big box store or mom-and-pop store and there would be a sea of shirts for men,” she recalls. “They could wear a shirt floating down the river or riding and then wear it to dinner or the bar and still look great. There was never an option for us [women]. I was always packing two shirts for one day. I kept thinking, why can’t I have one shirt like the guys do?”

The notion she kicked around went from a spark to a flame in 2020, when she began working in earnest on Wyatt Outdoors. 

“I wanted it to bring together functional and fashionable in the women’s apparel world,” she says. “The performance qualities that made it a shirt that would stand up to adventures, I wanted it to fit that. I wanted it to be moisture wicking, quick dry, and have UPF qualities, because we want to protect our skin. And I hate to do laundry, so it had to be easy-care and washer/dryer safe. Throw it in the washer, the dryer, then put it on for the next adventure! Finally, it had to be made in America.”

Tuohy lost sleep designing the perfect fit, she says. The collar is designed to pop, not only for fashion’s sake but to protect the neck, and the shirttail had to be long enough to stay tucked in no matter the activity. She also wanted sleeves that stayed rolled up all day. 

Plus, it had to look great. The “barn to bar” look needed embellishment and color. 

“My vision was to create classic pieces that would work for our lifestyle and the next,” Tuohy explains. “It was pearl snap or bust. Many, many years ago, I shaped hats for a living, and being part of the Western lifestyle and culture has always been close to my heart. You’re not going to identify a pearl-snap shirt with anything but the romance of the West, and that was important to me.” 

Cowboy Ware

Creating shirts to be as durable and as tough as the people that wear them, Sarah McEntire Prather wanted to make an American-made shirt for horsemen and women. Cowboy Ware was created to serve that purpose, and though designed originally for men, women immediately purchased sized-down shirts. Now, a women’s line is coming in 2025. 

“I wanted to figure out a way to connect and tell the story of ranching, ranching in the U.S., and the Western industry through this brand,” says Prather. “In 2024, the first collection of Cowboy Wear, I was inspired by Fort Worth. The slogan for Fort Worth is ‘Where the West Begins,’ and it was also where Cowboy Ware began. Going forward, the inspiration is going to continue to come from different towns, their history, and their ties to ranching and the horse and cattle industry. That will be a trend going forward with coastal prairie ranching as the focus this year.”

Cowboy Ware is designed for the rancher, horseman, or horsewoman that is in the ag industry, working daily. The shirt colors reflect the land—a rich brown with red dirt tones, a deep green that reflects the trees, and for the 2025 Gulf Coast focus, a water blue. Additionally, the shirts are named for their location, or the inspiration. 

“The ‘Cowtown’ collection has a color called Cobblestones, and when you’re walking through the streets of Fort Worth, everything is cobblestones,” Prather explained. “If you’re walking those streets, you’re walking the biggest hub of cattle auctions decades ago, and to think how many cattle and horses walked those streets, it was a big inspiration.”

The process of finding an American-based manufacturer was time consuming, but a priority for Prather. Since first launching her brand, the fit has changed to reflect the needs of her customers. Her traditionalist tendencies remain focused on a shirt that provides a classic button-down look with a yoke that identifies it as Western. 

Incorporating 100-percent cotton as well as UPF protective options in 2025, Prather looked forward to the next line of shirts made for people who move.  

“Being a lifestyle brand, I wanted something that had multiple uses,” she says. “People could be comfortable wearing it to work in or show in and compete, or wear it to town.”

This article about women in Western fashion appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Western Life Today magazine. Click here to subscribe!