Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990 TAG: 9003221989
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Not only are the ties turning up on men everywhere, according to the February issue of Esquire, but women also are adopting the style.
The name "bolo" is a corruption of the Spanish bola and seems to come from boleadoras, the Argentine gaucho's equivalent of the lariat - three balled weights at the ends of a forked rope.
The inspiration for its current popularity may have come from Dennis Hopper sporting one in the film "Blue Velvet," from Ralph Lauren adorning his Polo with a bolo and from Bruce Springsteen appearing on a magazine cover wearing one.
The range is great - from $10 versions at New York's Tepee Town to $300 sterling silver models at James Reid in Santa Fe, N.M.
Decorations vary widely, including the silver eagle, steer's head, arrowhead or Indian head nickel.
Indian silver, concha style, remains popular, as do turquoise and black onyx. Tiger's-eye, opal, agate and petrified wood also are popular. A Denver firm offers a scorpion or a black widow encased in Lucite.
In Chicago you can find a bolo with a rattlesnake's head, with open mouth and rattles for the thong ends. There also is a futuristic bolo - holographic models bearing flickering spectral images of skulls or eyes. There's even one with a full-color image of Pope John Paul II.
The origin of the bolo is fuzzy, but it dates at least to the 1940s. According to Steve Weil of Rockmount Ranch Wear in Denver, his grandfather - the first to put snaps on Western shirts - produced early models based on those of individual craftsmen, mostly Indian.
As for its renewed popularity, Weil has a strictly functional explanation, based on the failings of the traditional necktie.
"How many times do I spill coffee on that sucker?" Weil asked.
Traditionally, the bolo has been associated with the older-rancher type, retired actor or Orange County, Calif., right-winger. But by the end of the 1980s, Weil said, rock stars began to adopt it as a folk symbol, and Springsteen appeared in a heart-shaped bolo on the cover of his "Tunnel of Love" album.
Western outfitters assured Phil Patton in Esquire that the bolo is not just a fashion flash but what Weil called "a kinder, gentler" western look.
Memo: Spring Fashion