Lone Ranger Meets Tonto

By Michael Demarest

It's high noon in the tepee for casual fashions

Now the Indian's dressin 'up like cowboys

And the cowboys are puttin 'leather and turquoise on ...

--Urban Cowboy's Cherokee Fiddle

That ain't just a figment of fancy from the John Travolta movie. All across the country, from the canyons of Manhattan to the chic watering holes of Beverly Hills and, of course, the salons of the Southwest, it is Lone Ranger and Tonto time. City dudes are sporting wide-brimmed cowpoke sombreros (often with Indian accents of feathers and turquoise-inlaid headbands), yoke shirts, off-the-range Levi's, brass- or gold-buckled belts and high-steppin' boots of alligator or snakeskin. Some real rootin' tooters tote leather holsters (empty) and cartridge belts. The lady on the Marlboro man's arm is apt to resemble Pocahontas, in a fringed T shirt, multicolored headband, squash-blossom necklace, beaded deerskin bag with dangling mink paws and --the essential accessory--white, fringed moccasins. Some squaws without reservations go so far as to wear war-paint makeup.

While the western look has cantered around for years, its popularity beyond the prairie is a fairly recent phenomenon. As for the redskin connection, it came not from Sioux or Blackfoot country or even from Seventh Avenue but, curiously, from France, where le peau rouge has always been an object of romantic fascination and, lately, of fashionable imitation. French visitors are among the most avid customers at the growing number of U.S. stores that specialize in such Indian artifacts as beads, bandannas, belts, jewelry and even earrings of mallard, quail and pheasant feathers (available at Manhattan's Tepee Town for only $3.98). The most sought-after cowhide moccasins, by Minnetonka of Minneapolis, cost less than $20 at most American stores but sell for $60 in Paris. (They will be available in four colors this fall.) On the other hand, ceremonial leather shirts copied from traditional tribal garb and laced together with abalone shells, deer teeth and ermine tails, are priced as high as $1,800 in the U.S. Cutter Bill Western World in Dallas sells diamond-beaded hatbands for $32,000 apiece and ermine-and-crocodile boots for $6,000.

Can America's oldest-and-newest fashion fad last? At Laredo in Chicago, Manager Tony Zimmerman says, "It's a very individualistic, very independent, very pro-American, very proud look. You stand up straight because of your boots." Men and women who have never been closer to a horse than a power-steered Mustang are crowding hundreds of new nightclubs specializing in country-and-western music, including one in Dallas -- inspired by Urban Cowboy -- that features an electronic bucking bull (price per ride: $2 for less than a minute). The clothes are certainly durable, comfortable and generally affordable. For some, they come trailing clouds of glory and nostalgia as well. Says Barbara Cirkva, 32, a buyer for the Cul de Sac boutique at Manhattan's Bloomingdale's: "We all want to be cowboys and Indians. We were all cowboys and Indians as kids. It's one of the last great fantasies left."

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