The wardrobe Miranda Lambert wore for her Las Vegas residency started as a bunch of photos she took inside a museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
“When I first visited the National Cowgirl Museum, I was so inspired by all of the amazing Western pieces on display that I sent a bunch of photos to my stylist, Tiffany. We mixed that inspiration with the heyday of Elvis to create the ‘Velvet Rodeo’ wardrobe,” she said in a statement from the museum.
Now that wardrobe is headed to the same building. On Oct. 13, the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame announced that its Velvet Rodeo exhibit will be the first exhibition in its new Icons Gallery, opening Nov. 7. It was created with Lambert and features the one-of-a-kind clothes she wore during her Velvet Rodeo residency.
“Seeing these pieces now have a life beyond the stage as part of the Museum’s new Icons Gallery feels really full circle and special,” she said.
The clothes are ending up right where the idea for them began.
The Cowgirl Museum That Inspired Velvet Rodeo Inducted Miranda Lambert in 2021
The residency ran in Las Vegas from September 2022 to April 2024 and played to sold-out shows. Curator Ashley Kowalski said Lambert’s styling for those nights was inspired by historic garments from iconic Western tailors that she saw on display at the museum, and the new gallery gives the whole collection a home.
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“We are honored to give her residency wardrobe a new stage where the collection can be appreciated in its entirety,” Kowalski said.
Miranda Lambert has more history with that building than one visit. On Oct. 26, 2021, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame there, nominated by Eleanor Green. She posted on Instagram that it was one of the greatest honors of her life, and she wrote, “Tuesday October 26 2021 is a day I will never forget as long as I live.”
The museum launched in 1975, and its Hall of Fame honors more than 260 women, with more than 4,000 artifacts in its archives. Lambert belongs to that world outside the concert hall too, as a horsewoman and an active mounted shooting competitor.
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“Miranda’s confidence, determination and independence make her a wonderful representative of the women we honor,” Executive Director Pat Riley said in the museum’s release.
Riley added that opening the Icons Gallery with this collaboration celebrates her accomplishments and gives visitors a new way to connect with a cowgirl they know and admire. Her list of accomplishments is a long one. She is the most-awarded artist in Academy of Country Music history, with three Grammy Awards and 14 CMA Awards.
Velvet Rodeo Opens the Museum’s New Icons Gallery and Will Stay at Least a Year
Her stage clothes have hung in a museum once before. An exhibit called “Backstage Access” opened at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville on May 16, 2014, with gowns, stage costumes and awards narrated by her own tweets, and it closed on Nov. 9 that year.
No specific end date has been given for Velvet Rodeo. A museum spokesperson told CultureMap Dallas the exhibition will remain on display for at least one year, so the Texas show is built to stay a good deal longer than the Nashville one did.
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The Icons Gallery is part of the museum’s 16,000-square-foot expansion, a $19 million project that includes a new entrance facing Dickies Arena, new galleries including one for photography, an event space for up to 250 people and the new Cowgirl Carousel.
The museum at 1720 Gendy St. in Fort Worth’s Cultural District closes to the public on Oct. 19. It reopens Nov. 7 with a members-only preview at 10 a.m. The Cowgirl Grand Parade follows at 11 a.m., and general admission begins at noon.
Miranda Lambert once stood in that museum taking pictures of clothes made by Western tailors long before her time. The Velvet Rodeo wardrobe those pictures became will hang in the same building for at least a year, in the gallery it was chosen to open.
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