Welcome to Aspen’s Bezos Era: Diamond Cowboy Hats and Champagne Sprays

Even during Thompson’s slightly more ramshackle era, Aspen drew celebrities and jet-setters. In the late 1960s, society photographer Slim Aarons captured a mountaintop picnic complete with a helicopter at adjacent Snowmass for “Holiday” magazine. But in recent years—nay, weeks!—the town has reached an apex of glamour, with a near-constant stream of luxury store and restaurant openings, the highest-profile visitors imaginable, a glut of private-jet traffic, over-the-top brand events and influencers giddily posting gaudy aprés-ski outfits (not to mention avant-ski and pendant-ski…). Fashion has fully infiltrated Aspen.

“It’s common to see a woman in Moon Boots, a 10-gallon cowboy hat and Celine goggles sitting in a leather club chair enjoying an espresso martini at 3 p.m.,” said Chris Black, the co-host of the podcast “How Long Gone,” who recently visited the town for its snow polo event.

While many locals and more low-key visitors still adhere to a more humble wardrobe of North Face puffers and jeans, the city’s new look is increasingly one designed to be photographed on South Mill Street, Aspen’s answer to Rodeo Drive. Some snow bunnies wear Prada puffers over sleek, body-con snow leggings or jumpsuits; some go full Western in cowboy hats, boot-cut jeans and heels; and others wear piles of fur, dramatic shearling coats and hats. 

“I call them the Furbies,” said Shea Marie, the founder and creative director of fashion brand Same and a part-time Aspen resident.

The credit—or blame—for this exaggerated style is multifold. Many of the Aspenites I spoke with called out the hit show “Yellowstone” for stoking a desire for the Western look. While Hollywood types like Goldie Hawn and Kevin Costner have long sought cozy refuge in the mountain town, the tenor of celebrity has reached new heights with recent guests like Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey. Social media and paparazzi have escalated, too. Although the rumor that Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez were to be married in Aspen over Christmas turned out to be false, the buff couple did stop by the town long enough over the holiday to be photographed in their body-conscious mountain wear.

Bezos and Sanchez also made time to go to one of their favorite Aspen spots: Kemo Sabe, the authentic heart of the Aspen style scene. The legendary Western-wear purveyor was founded in 1990 and named for a character on “Lone Ranger.” Wendy Kunkle, who purchased the company in 2020 along with Andrew Wilson and her brother Bobby Kunkle, has turned it into a world-renowned juggernaut with branches in Aspen and Vail; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Park City, Utah; Whitefish, Mont.; Round Top, Texas. More than just stores, each one has a bar and hosts events. 

When she first began working at the store in 2005, Kunkle began decorating hats with humble materials including lavender and sage sprigs, cactus spines, and horseshoe nails. 

Then people started demanding diamonds on their hats. The company acquiesced, and now adorns cowboy hats, boots and belt buckles with gemstones including black diamonds, turquoise, labradorite, moonstone, onyx, sapphire and rubies. Recently, a customer brought over a batch of caviar spoons, and those became hat decorations too. “We just do whatever the moment brings, and it’s fun and festive and hilarious,” said Kunkle. 

The company’s customers include Beyoncé, Rihanna and pretty much every 1-million-plus-follower influencer in the book, but perhaps no one has done more to tout Kemo Sabe than Bezos, who has been a client for more than 20 years. In 2018, Bezos rang in the new year by riding a horse into the Aspen store. He even wore a Kemo Sabe hat, boots and belt buckle to space for a Blue Origin mission in 2021. “I almost died,” said Kunkle of the interstellar moment.  

Kunkle stressed that although she values Bezos’s patronage, it’s just as important to her to welcome a homemaker from Ohio who’s been saving for a year to buy a hat. “Our motto is to make everyone feel important,” she said. 

After Kyle Richards allowed “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” to shoot in her Aspen home, she was nervous about the reaction among residents of the old mining town. But she said, “When I’m there now, people will stop me on the street and say, ‘We planned a trip here because we saw it on the show, and are also going to Kemo Sabe to get a hat and have a shopping party like you did!” Another win for Kunkle.

As Aspen style grows in the public imagination, so too does the scale of its theatricality. The town offers a chance to cosplay a certain vision of Western extravagance. “It’s like a movie set,” said Marie, the creative director of Same. “You can live out your cowboy dreams in boots and a cowboy hat, and you can almost become somebody else.”

That game of dress-up doesn’t always attract the desired attention. In 2024, the influencer Alix Earle posted a TikTok that went viral after she and her friend had hats made at the Kemo Sabe store. In it, she recounts how a passerby said, “I like your Aspen costume.” She captioned the video: “Humbled.”

Of course, you can’t ski in lizard-skin boots and a cowboy hat encrusted in rubies and dried flowers. Pretty much every major luxury brand has stepped up their skiwear in recent years. Resortwear for both beachy and snowy climates is generally seen as a bright spot for brands eager to court the recession-proof Very Important Clients.