Bernie McMahon : “Everyone is looking at me when I wear my best Western pieces”
He is what is called “a reference in the field”. On Instagram, on Etsy, on Patreon: wherever there is vintage Western wear, there is Bernie McMahon. Or rather, there is Cowpunkabilly, the nickname he has been using since 2007. Passionate about everything related to cowboys for over 50 years, Bernard is proof that the American West has no borders: in fact, he was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. Interview with a man who would have been perfectly at home in the 1950s, and who keeps the spirit of the West alive in 2023.
So, who is the man behind Cowpunkabilly?
Well, the man behind Cowpunkabilly (@cowpunkabilly) is called Bernard – or Bernie – McMahon. I am originally from Melbourne (VIC) where I graduated as a librarian in the mid-1980s. I worked in a few council public libraries until 1996, then I moved north to Brisbane (QLD) to work as a library book salesman for twenty years. I have spent the last two years working at the University of Queensland library in Brisbane. I also have had a side hustle as a vintage seller since 2007, specializing in vintage Western wear. And I recently started a Patreon account to share my knowledge and research of vintage Western wear.
Where did the name Cowpunkabilly come from?
When I started selling vintage clothes in 2007, I needed a business name to somehow describe my specialization. It’s a combination of Cowboy, Punk Rock (which is still my favorite style of music from my youth), and Rockabilly. I sold vintage bowling shirts and Aloha shirts too. I also went through a phase in the 1980s of liking cowpunk music which was punkified country rock and roll.
Let’s get back in time. How did you fall in love with Western wear?
On Christmas 1967, my two brothers and I got Western outfits as presents. My mother’s favorite movie and TV cowboy was William Boyd – Hopalong Cassidy – so me and my brothers got black cowboy hats, vests, chaps, and bandanas. We had lots of cap-shooting cowboy guns and rifles growing up! Mum was a big country music fan too. It wasn’t until I discovered a Rockabilly Kustom Kulture music festival in Brisbane in 2006 that I rekindled my interest in Western wear, especially as an aesthetic of hillbilly and rockabilly music.
“Western is a unique look encompassing hats, boots, shirts, jackets, pants, suits, coats, belts, ties, and more.”
What fascinates you in the Western style?
Nearly everything about Western style is fascinating! I love the unique and distinctive American style of Western wear. You can dress up or dress down as much as you like. I love the amazing creations of Rodeo Ben, Nathan Turk, Nudie Cohn, and other lesser-known master Western tailors but I also have a strong respect for the mass-produced Western fashion and workwear coming out between the 1920s and 1960s. I collect and wear lots of basic Western wear and also have amassed a large collection of old Western mail order catalogues and rodeo programs that help me research and date my collection. It’s the librarian in me that feels the need to document and research the Western wear styles. Western is a unique look encompassing hats, boots, shirts, jackets, pants, suits, coats, belts, ties, and more.
What does the cowboy myth represent for you?
I grew up watching a lot of cowboy shows on television in the ‘60s and ‘70s. They shaped my initial views of the cowboy myth. We had Australian singing cowboys like Tex Morton and Smokey Dawson on TV which gave me a sense of Australian cowboy life, which seems derivative of the American cowboy in many ways, but it has a big Aussie bush flavor about it. I have complex feelings about the cowboy myth today as there is now more understanding of the historically negative impact on the Indigenous American natives. The cowboy myth remains strong around the world today because people love to look back to icons of times past and relive the cowboy state of mind. The cowboy and cowgirl are part of popular culture. I am “all hat and no cattle” as they say and my love of Western style is more heavily based on Hillbilly music performers of the ‘40s and ‘50s, as well as what the common westerner was wearing as an everyday look.
What do you feel when you wear a 1940’s Rodeo Ben suit or a Nudie’s shirt?
I feel a sense of history wearing items made by great Western tailors, many items being 70 to 80 years old. I wish I knew the life stories of the original owners. In Australia, I feel like everyone is looking at me when I wear my best Western pieces. I get many compliments, which is nice, but I wear them because I love the history and design and don’t seek attention. It’s my look. I am not an extrovert by nature, but I feel empowered to some extent.
“I did my best to make Western wear part of the Brisbane Rockabilly scene.”
How is Western fashion perceived in Australia and how do you live this passion there, far from the United States?
There are some really knowledgeable vintage collectors in Australia, but few and far between. They are mainly in Sydney and Melbourne. I did my best to make Western wear part of the Brisbane Rockabilly scene while I was selling at music festivals but for the most part Australia is very conservative fashion-wise and so I save wearing my best Western wear to gigs and festivals mainly. It draws a LOT of attention. Bartenders usually ask me if I am in the band! I wear basic pearl snap Western shirts to work and out shopping. Australian men have to be somewhat brave to wear flamboyant Western publicly. I live my passion on Instagram and Patreon as much as I can because I have a bigger audience overseas. It’s fun to be part of the worldwide Western wear community online. My wife Kerryn is a vintage aficionado too and supports me in my efforts.
What is the most beautiful vintage piece in your collection in your eyes?
The most beautiful vintage piece in my collection would have to be the early Nathan Turk black Western shirt with white piping, the cowboy on a bucking bronco embroidered on the back, cowboy boots on the chest, and flowering cacti and agave plants on the collar, chest, and cuffs. Roy Rogers is pictured in a black version and a white version of this shirt in some of his comics, but I can’t find a photo of what is on the back of his shirts. Colorful chainstitch embroidery really pops on a black background.
And what’s the craziest thing you’ve done for a vintage piece?
Living in Australia I must source the majority of my vintage pieces online, so I have had to sometimes get up early for endings of auctions or interrupt work to check on auctions. Once I spent all day picking in a rag house outside of Dallas, Texas one day after catching food poisoning on my last day after a Viva Las Vegas festival –that was brutal! I remember going to see The Reverend Horton Heat playing one Friday night here in Brisbane. I parked my car outside a vintage store near the venue and noticed a Nathan Turk shirt displayed in the window. The store was closed but I turned up as the store opened the very next morning to grab that shirt! As the owner was taking my money he was telling me he had a picker in the US sending him stuff and he “hadn’t seen a shirt by Sherman Oaks before”. After I had it back in my hands I toldhimitwasa Nathan Turk shirt and Sherman Oaks was just the LA suburb on the 1960s tag! Got it fairly cheap too!
You'll find more interviews and anecdotes about Western Wear in the book An Anthology of Western Wear, still available here:
