Buckskins

Mountain man reenactor dressed in buckskins

Calamity Jane dressed in buckskins.
Photo by H. R. Locke

Buckskins are clothing, usually consisting of a jacket and leggings, made from buckskin, a soft sueded leather from the hide of deer or elk. Buckskins are often trimmed with fringe (originally a functional detail, to allow the garment to dry faster when it was soaking wet because the fringe acted as wicks to soak away the water)^[1] or quills.

Buckskins derive from deerskin clothing worn by Native Americans. They were popular with mountain men and other frontiersmen for their warmth and durability. Buckskin jackets, often dyed and elaborately detailed, are a staple of western wear and were a brief fad in the 1970s.

Famous wearers

• George Armstrong Custer
• Davy Crockett
• Wild Bill Hickok
• Calamity Jane
• Buffalo Bill
• Annie Oakley
• Sitting Bull
• John Bon Jovi^{[citation needed]}
• Dennis Hopper^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Media related to Buckskins at Wikimedia Commons