Boots, Buckles & Bolos

How many people do you know whose personal closets and collections boast enough boots, buckles, and bolos to fill a book? Even here at C&I, where we love those alliterative showstoppers, we’re not sure we could pool our holdings into a book that’s as brimming with those cool accoutrements of Western style as Jim Arndt’s new one. 

Vintage Cowboys bolo, by silversmith Roger Miller.

Boots, Buckles, & Bolos makes book number 12 for Arndt. “Somebody else will have to decide if those three things belong in the same book,” he says. The first inkling that they eventually might came in 1992, when Arndt and designer Tyler Beard did their first cowboy boot book. “There wasn’t a boot book out there, so we had no idea what we were doing,” Arndt remembers. “Then it just went crazy and everybody had to have a book on cowboy boots. That prompted the next books. We did 100 Years of Western Wear next, and then two more boot books after that.” 

And he probably could have kept it up with boot books. “The boots just keep coming, and collections show up,” Arndt says. “I’ve walked into somebody’s house and come across a collection of vintage boots that nobody’s ever heard of. So, they’re out there, and the current bootmakers are still making boots like crazy, so it could be never-ending.” 

“Eiffel Tower boots for my French cowgirl,” elaborate inlay and overlay work, designed by Nathalie Kent, made by Dave Little.

And there are plenty of boots to prove the point in the new book. The vast majority aren’t the mucking-out-stalls variety. “If you’re a working cowboy, you’re probably not gonna be wearing orange and pink boots. Real cowboys want boots that fit their world,” says Arndt, who rides and knows the difference between a boot for stirrups and a boot for star power. 

“There are a few museum pieces in the new book, but most everything in there is worn,” he says. “Like my wife Nathalie’s Eiffel Tower boots—she wears those all the time. And the Virgin of Guadalupe—she wears those, day to day. Nudie boots, custom boots by Nudie Cohn—those are on the shelf. The two pairs of boots that Nudie made that we have in this book, those should both be in a museum. I have some that are vintage ’50s that stay on the shelf, because 1) they don’t fit and 2) I’m not gonna go out and trash them, because they’re more fun to look at. But I wear my favorite boots all the time. I mean, I don’t have any shoes. …” 

In spite of all that boot love, Arndt says he wasn’t really ready to do just another boot book or a reissue of some of his previous ones. So he and his publisher decided to do a book that “covered a few more things” and landed on the idea of boots plus buckles plus bolos. Arndt had already covered buckles, so it was bolos that clinched it. He’s a bolo-wearer himself. 

 Sterling silver cutout and stamped Native American buckle, by Al Somers.

“I probably have about five that I’ve worn over the last 20 years. I have one that I think is dressier, and one is more Southwest-y turquoise, but I don’t really have very many myself.” That’s not the case with wife Nathalie. “She wears them more than I do. She’s designed some and has got about 20 more of them than I do. I wear a bolo if I’m dressing up. I’ve never been a necktie guy. I think I own one someplace, but I’m not sure. I haven’t worn one since I was a kid and my parents made me wear one.” 

So what’s the attraction of the bolo tie that two of Santa Fe’s most recognized style mavens are fans? “I can throw on my jeans, boots, sport coat, bolo, and a white shirt and I’m dressed,” Arndt says. “I can go out to a wedding, a party, whatever, and nobody ever says you’re underdressed. There’s a whole bolo world out there and a lot of people who collect them. Just by making a few phone calls, I found people out there who’d say, ‘Oh, I have 100 bolos.’ The ones in the book are from all over west of the Mississippi. There are so many of them in all different styles—some really interesting ones, and beautiful ones.” 

Arndt, who describes himself as “basically an advertising photographer,” has been on plenty of fashionable shoots and knows style when he sees it—or creates it. He shot Marlboro Man print ads in the 1970s and is rumored to have shot George Strait’s family Christmas cards. By that point, he’d been into Western wear for a long time. 

“My mother’s side of the family was from Colorado, and when I was little we’d go out West to visit. And they put me in cowboy boots when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I think I was the only guy at the University of Minnesota in the ’60s wearing them. So I’ve always been into that. I started spending more time out West and I worked on a lot of cowboy projects, and boots were a big deal. I wasn’t too into fancy ones until we worked on the first book and we went to see all these great bootmakers, and every place we went we’d order a pair of boots. So I have that collection. And I’ve always liked vintage boots—the more beat-up the better. There’s a pair in the new book that still has the mud on them.” 

Santa Fe Style-Makers Jim Arndt and Nathalie Kent

And then he started collecting buckles, too. “There’s a whole bunch of ‘Flying A’ buckles in the book, which is my logo, my brand. One day—this sounds really weird, but …—I was having lunch with Gene Autry and he leaned over and said, ‘You stole my logo.’ He was just joking around. We happened to be sitting next to each other at lunch when we were working on the Western wear book, and he just bumps me with his elbow and tells me that. I was like, ‘Oh, God—Gene Autry!’” 

Point is, Arndt knows whereof he wears. Ditto wife Nathalie, who was an editor at French Vogue and still has deep ties with her native France, where she’s been renovating a home. Back in her adopted hometown of Santa Fe, where she put down roots in 1995, she had a cameo in the film An Ideal Home, in which she played herself as one of the stylish locals invited to a dinner party at Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan’s pad in the City Different. And she designs her own pieces, some of which are in the new book. With her hip-length hair and hat-to-boots Western flair, she’s a recognized figure around town. Jim, meanwhile, has a style and presence all his own—a bit of a Sam Elliott vibe and the picture of a gentleman cowboy. 

Flying A Ranch 1950, by Clint Mortenson.

“They’re honestly two of the coolest people in Santa Fe,” says C&I staffer Matt Russell, who has known them for years. “Their shop, Nathalie, on Canyon Road is always a must-visit. The location is amazing, and whenever we have out-of-town guests, it’s one of our favorite stops. You never know who you might run in to there. It’s the kind of place where you could see famous musicians or movie stars, and Jim and Nathalie seem to be friends with all of the local celebrities in town. The area, the shop, and the conversations with them always make for a memorable experience. They really are as authentic and stylish as it gets.” 

Boots, Buckles & Bolos (September 2025) is available from publisher Gibbs Smith (gibbs-smith.com), Amazon, and booksellers everywhere.  

Beyond The Book: Getting Your Own Boots, Buckles & Bolos 

Cowboys & Indians: Are most of the items in the new book acquirable or private collector’s items that we won’t get any closer to than your photos? 

Jim Arndt: Yes and no. The vintage boots, no, because they’re mostly in people’s collections. Some of the contemporary ones are available. What happened with the other boot books is people would carry them around. There’s a little square one that you could put in your bag, and it had something like 400 pairs of boots in it. People would carry it around as a reference when they ordered custom boots. They’d say, “I want a pair of these.” Some of the more contemporary boots in this book are actually available. And, of course, you could always use the ones that aren’t as a template to have something made that’s similar. There’s a couple in the book that I would call “factory boots”—two pairs of Old Gringo boots in there—that they actually made runs of, but we put them in there because they’re cool-looking. But most everything in this new book was custom. Some buckles are available; some of the ones in collections would be hard to get your hands on. The companies are still around. Comstock’s around. Bohlin’s around—they’re top-shelf. Clint Orms and Chet Vogt are around. And they’ll make you beautiful buckles.” 

—J.R.