Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
Cowpunk fashion takes the working wardrobe of the rural American South and wears it as punk. The base look is the Southern United States poor boy: vintage western wear-style checked shirts, overalls, trucker hats and work boots, mixed with punk staples such as the Perfecto motorcycle jacket and acid wash jeans. Cowboy boots complete the outfit, and hair ranges from a short quiff or crew cut to long hair or a psychobilly-style mohawk, with facial hair acceptable for men.
Fans of cowpunk base their look on Southern United States poor boys: vintage western wear-like checked shirts, Perfecto motorcycle jackets, wifebeaters, overalls, trucker hats, work boots, acid wash jeans, and cowboy boots. Hair can be a short quiff, crew cut, long, or a psychobilly-style mohawk, and facial hair is acceptable for males.
Learn more about various punk fashion styles from the main page of this section.
The interest of the cowpunk look is the collision it stages. Western wear and workwear — the checked shirt, the overalls, the trucker hat, the work boot — come from a rural, laboring tradition that punk's urban styles usually ignore. The Perfecto motorcycle jacket and acid wash jeans pull the same outfit back toward the city and the punk club. Neither half is a costume on its own: the pieces are ordinary work garments, and the style comes from wearing them together, as a statement that punk could grow out of country and Southern roots as readily as out of London or New York.
The hair options map the same two worlds. A crew cut or long hair belongs to the rural base; the short quiff belongs to rockabilly; the psychobilly-style mohawk belongs to punk. That a single style can hold all three without contradiction shows how cowpunk works — it is a blend at every level, held together by attitude and by the boots, denim and checked cotton that both traditions share.
Vintage western wear-like checked shirts, Perfecto motorcycle jackets, sleeveless undershirts, overalls, trucker hats, work boots, acid wash jeans and cowboy boots — a Southern working wardrobe mixed with punk pieces.
Hair can be a short quiff, a crew cut, long, or a psychobilly-style mohawk, and facial hair is acceptable for males.
The two styles share the quiff-and-mohawk hair vocabulary and a love of vintage Americana. Psychobilly builds on 1950s greaser and Teddy Boy dress, while cowpunk builds on Southern rural workwear and western wear.