In 2024, it feels delightfully inevitable that Grammy-winning singer Kacey Musgraves would design a Reformation collection heavy on so-called horse girl style. Country—in music and in style—is having what culture critics might call a moment.
Still, a Bowery Hotel party toasting her collection, featuring a crowd dressed in cowboy boots, denim corsets, and buckle bunny studs, is a pleasant surprise for the Deeper Well singer-turned-designer. "I've always thought it was cool, but there was a time when I was a lot younger that I felt like kind of an outsider because of what I wore," Musgraves tells me.
All these years later, she's the last person to gatekeep the yeehaw approach to getting dressed. "I am so f–cking glad to see people catching up and having their own fun moments with it. [Horse girl style] looks good on every single person."
Her Reformation lineup doesn't go as Western as the fringe and rhinestones Musgraves hit the yodeling circuit with as a child in Golden, Texas. But it's clear from the collection that horse girl style is, as Musgraves says "in her bones."
The collection includes everything from on-the-nose equestrian pieces—like knee-high leather riding boots, denim shirting, and vintage hair scarves—to ribbon-sleeved silk dresses and cashmere matching sets for lounging around the estate (or ranch) after a long ride through the rolling hills. Fall plaids and rich shades like crimson and navy are in abundance; so are sweet touches of lace and bows. It's English countryside gone ever so slightly country—curated by someone who clearly knows her way around a stable and a shop-worthy linesheet. Prices are all relatively affordable, with most pieces retailing under $200. There's also a bit of her DNA in the packaging: Musgraves's sister, Kelly Christine Sutton, photographed the campaign on location in the Cotswolds.
There are a few pieces that bring horse girl flair to even broader 2024 trends, like a plaid matching set comprised of a strapless top and pedal pushers. "Capri pants are back! Peplum is back!" Musgraves laughs. There are also two ways to try a denim-on-denim outfit in the vein of Beyoncé, Bella Hadid, and Musgraves herself: either a denim, tie-front corset top or an oversize denim shirt, both paired to wide-leg jeans in various washes. Musgraves also designed pointy-toed denim boots for a full-on commitment to the look.
It's genuine to how she dresses: "I will always be a fan of a Canadian Tuxedo," she says.
From a puff-sleeve mini dress known as the "Bunny" to her Cotswolds plaid overcoat, don't be surprised to see Musgraves wearing these pieces on her Deeper Well tour. "Seriously, I approached this much like when I am putting together a tour. I want to put together a tour that I would personally want to go see. This is a line of clothing that I would personally wear and I would never create something that I wouldn't personally stand behind first."
Odds are, most women getting in touch with their inner rodeo queen won't be wearing these pieces on a ranch or a rolling countryside estate. So Mugraves worked closely with the Reformation team to give the silk dresses and denim some real-world viability (with a heavy emphasis on recycled materials—Musgraves is a sustainability girl, too).
In the process, "I learned that I do actually know a lot more about tailoring than I thought that I did," she says. She mentions she'd gone back and forth with Reformation team on the tiniest details to get each piece right—whether adding a hook and eye closure here or changing the color of a stitch there.
"Getting into those details was really fun: Like, what makes a garment look good on everyone's body, the proportions that are important, the fabrics. I approached this much like I approach all creative endeavors, I just put my whole self into it," she explains.
Her whole self is evident in the lineup's range. It's cohesive, but it's not one-note. The underlying message? "There is no wrong way to be a horse girl," Musgraves says. "You can be an English lady. You can be a Western lady, and this collection does lean a little bit more into the equestrian English world. My heart will always be rooted in the Western community, but I love so many different things."
To paraphrase her song "Dime Store Cowgirl," you can take Kacey to a different kind of country, but you'll never take the country—or the horse girl—out of her.
Kacey Musgraves x Reformation is now available online and in Reformation stores.
