Historical Western Emporium

[Team Roper]

Schaefer Outfitter is another western store supplying western ranch wear for those of us who actually work or play from a horse. Those who don't, may also find some of what they offer, interesting. Their outer wear is extremely tough.

[RanchRoper]

I have a long Schaefer duster coat I have used for many years. Very tough. Good protection from the elements and easy to pack horseback.

[John E Davies]

Many of the Histrorical company's clothes, like skirts are 100% polyester. Some of the cool men's coats are wool/ synthetic blend with 100% polyester lining. It varies from item to item. If a buyer doesn't care, then it doesn't really matter at all.

I for one would much rather watch Matt Quigley or Gus McCrae slouch around in dirty, wrinkled period correct ciothing than watch Ben Cartwright in his pristine, wrinkle free PermaPress outfit. Interesting side note - the four Bonanza actors each wore different outfits, the same in each episode. The reason was so the producers could use oldert footage of them riding, fighting, etc, since they couldn't blue-screen stuff like that and they had a limited time and budget for reshooting scenes.

I also have a thing about dust in westerns. Very early John Ford movies were full of choking dust, the stage would pull up and everybody was enveloped in it. His later films used a water truck - you can see the tire tracks - and the horses and coaches arrived a little mud splattered but everybody still looked spotless.LOL, if I lived at a remote fort in the desert, surrounded by Apaches, the last thing I would be thinking about is watering the road into the fort gates....

John Davies
Spokane WA

[BrokenolMarine]

That's what made the series Deadwood so cool. How many times do you see dramas that had road apples or dead animals in the street, the actors in realistically dirty or worn/torn clothing? Teeth brown, missing?

[BrokenolMarine]

I loved that series

[RanchRoper]

Yup, huge Deadwood fan.

[Team Roper]

Now I feel like I missed something good. I never seen Deadwood.

[CT_Shooter]

I struggled to watch Deadwood, The Movie because of it's script, written in iambic pentameter. I actually love watching Shakespeare's plays and many of the films made from them, but that poetic dialogue in Deadwood, peppered with colorful, vulgar terms and phrases was unsettling for me.

Is the TV series similar?

[RanchRoper]

The 3 seasons of the show are a period correct visual feast, but the language is rough to say the least. Whether they actually spoke like that all the time back in those times I have my doubts. But I do really like the show. There is some quite humorous bits here and there amid the violence and profanity if you watch for it. It's not for everybody that's for sure. My wife won't watch it.

Sorry to take the topic off track. Back to the clothing, my winter coat is the same wool coat worn by Chet Rollins (Keith Carradine) in the recent Monte Walsh, both made by River Junction in Iowa. They used to sell Selleck's coat pattern from the movie but don't anymore. Some of these places sell some real good quality stuff. There's a place in Montana that makes beautiful buffalo coats if you have $2500 to spare....