Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Cowboy Kate Rides Again!

When my daughters were younger, I read them Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa, a children’s story about a cowgirl and her horse.

Perhaps the author was (unconsciously?) riffing on Sam Haskins’ Cowboy Kate, a lush black-and-white photographic book from 1965 that documents Kate and other female “cowboys” in a dewy, sensual love letter to the female body. It's easy to see his influence--from the Claudia Schiffer-for-Guess-jeans ads (above) to a recent Madonna spread for Elle (below).



This work is now available in a “director’s cut,” and I’m thinking about getting up on that horse—this could be a lovely book for my library.



(Above image from Haskins' Five Girls [1962])

4 comments:

Couture Carrie said...

Gorgeous post and pics, darling!
Great to hear from you!
I love that DVF dress too!

xoxox,
CC

La Belette Rouge said...

I never saw cowgirls like that in Texas. Where do these kind of cowgirls come from? A sort of low carb spaghetti western?;-)\
Gorgeous photos.

Belle de Ville said...

I second La Belette's comment. As an ex equestrienne I never saw cowgirls that looked like that!

Elizabeth said...

I love black-and-white's moodiness.