Style tips from iconic Hollywood cowboys Messrs Elvis Presley, Dennis Hooper and Paul Newman .

The clothes that traditional cowboys wore were almost as important to them as the horses they rode and the saddles they sat on; they were the tools of the job. Durability is a quotidian virtue, but it’s vital when it comes to workwear and it has an unintended benefit: most clothes look and feel better as they get older. The rugged fabrics from which Western wear is made (denim, suede, chambray and bridle leather) all benefit from a sustained period of hard use, whether that’s achieved sitting in a horse’s saddle, a motorbike seat or even an office chair.

Having seen the new The Magnificent Seven trailer, we were inspired to dig out some shots from Hollywood’s distant golden age. It reminds us that Western wear is always relevant, so wherever your clothes are on their long life cycle of purchase, wear, soften, fade, fray and finally – regretfully – replace, they’ll never be wrong.

Cool Hand Luke remains a 1960s rallying cry for men of indomitable spirit to take on a cruel and heartless system, in this case a Florida prison. However the film’s eponymous hero, Mr Paul Newman’s Lucas “Luke” Jackson, is ultimately broken by that system. Despite its sad ending, the film makes back-breaking work look very stylish indeed. This location shot of Mr Newman reminds us to concentrate on our posture, hang onto our jeans until they’re threadbare and to consider (we’ll put it no more strongly than that) whether we could sport a singlet on holiday this summer.

Easy Rider, Mr Dennis Hopper’s 1969 directorial debut, was such a success that Universal Pictures gave him $1m and creative carte blanche for his second film, which was confusingly titled The Last Movie (it wasn’t). Although Mr Hopper appears here behind the camera, he also starred in the film, so his double-denim outfit (and we can probably assume that it’s actually triple-denim) is part of the character’s costume. These clothes make us wonder if it might not be time to buy an unwashed denim trucker jacket and wear it until it’s in tatters.

Much has changed since Mr Elvis Presley made his movie debut in 1956’s Love Me Tender, not least the idea that any young singer could be sufficiently famous to take the starring role in his or her first film. Mr Presley, photographed on location, looks every inch the star in his rugged work shirt (with the collar popped to keep the sun off his neck) and a taupe felt hat.