As someone with neurodiversity I recognize clothes have many layers, no pun intended. There are cultural significances and practical uses, these are the two main qualities of clothing. Culture eventually wins over the practicality of certain garments, people wear flight jackets without being pilots, people wear Stetson’s without being ranchers, I fit that second category. Living in this country I have been exposed to the common judgement passed by others, Americans love to observe a person and fish out their qualities so that they can equate them to something familiar usually attached to pop culture. Since I live in the city, wearing a rancher hat most people won’t care but some people will point and say “Ayyy I’m walking here” or “Howdy pardner” or some stupid shit.
Two years ago when I didn’t care about appearance I had many people point and laugh, one person I confronted said “when is x album coming out”, essentially comparing me to some washed up classic rock star who I looked nothing like. I walked back to their apartment after researching what they said and said some things which made them close their window and end their windowsill “comedy show” which was essentially what I mentioned before, the lowest form of comedy of making fun of appearances and comparing those features to someone else / pop culture references.
But the hat is seven hundred dollars.
Howdy pardner
I’m walking here
The problem with a lot of men’s hats is that that they’re hard to style with a modern wardrobe. This is why fedoras go in for a lot of mockery. People who are not fashion conscious wear them thinking they are cool in and of themselves. But a fedora over like a t-shirt and jeans is not at all cool. But conversely dressing like a guy from the 1940s is also pretty tough to pull off
If you’re dressed like Churchill and there’s no wedding, you’re gonna look like a goofball. Likewise if you try to pull a Don Draper aesthetic while looking like Starvos Hilkas
Wear whatever you want, who cares.
I’ve got a beautiful 10X Stetson that looks just like the one Tim Olyphant wore in Justified. I used to go drinking with a guy who also liked to dress western, and we’d go out in boots, hats, and buckles most of the time. He worked as a ranch hand very briefly years before I met him, but other than that, neither of us knows shit about being a cowboy (not firsthand anyway.) Didn’t stop men, women, and everyone in between from checking us out everywhere we went.
There’d be the occasional guy from Texas or wherever interrogating us to see if we were “real” cowboys, which is idiotic on so many levels. Pay no mind to any of that, and dress how you like. We’ll all be dead someday, live it up while you can and yee some haws with me.
There’d be the occasional guy from Texas or wherever interrogating us to see if we were “real” cowboys
I’m 100% sure these were guys from some hellhole suburb of DFW who drive lifted F350’s to drop their kids off at football practice. Real cowboys, on the other hand, think they will be murdered by a street gang the second they set foot in a city, so you are unlikely to encounter them
That, and what does it even mean to be a “real” cowboy? There’s only like a half million working cowboys left in this country, and even that seems like a high estimate. These guys must get awfully exasperated in the crowd at a rodeo or a country show.
But again, most people either dig it or pay me as little mind as they would any other stranger. It’s been years since I’ve had one of those conversations.
By real cowboy, I mean people who actually have and/or work on cattle ranches
I know what you meant, my bad, I should’ve phrased that differently. I’m asking that of these guys, and what I really mean to ask is where they got the idea that only working cowboys can dress that way when there’s so few of them to begin with, and when that manner of dress has so long ago transcended its original purpose.
Like what’s next, you can’t wear blue jeans if you don’t work in a coal mine?
I’m being pedantic for no reason other than my lineage being a mix of Appalachia and west coast, but coal miners typically wore denim overalls and modern jeans were worn by western miners who were mostly mining precious metals like silver, gold, and copper.
Hey, please, be pedantic, it’s just one more way for me to learn (And I’m definitely not also saying that because I’m habitually pedantic myself.) I do recall reading something like that though, in a book I’ve got on jeans in the old west. Clearly it’s been a while since I’ve opened it lol
So jeans were built for durability which was the most important thing in the west where you were mining through granite for precious metals. If you were a coal miner in Appalachia, your main concern was being covered in coal dust.
I mean, if you’re out in the Texas sun kicking cow shit all day, then a cowboy hat and boots are still for their original, practical purpose. But also, they don’t have a monopoly on those clothes items (stolen originally from the Mexicans like everything else in Texas) and who cares what they think anyway? They’re by and large a bunch of incredibly reactionary hicks who think the closest midsize city is controlled by roving gangs of minorities
My thoughts exactly. Plus gatekeepers are pests no matter what’s at issue.
I kinda want to be able to handle my own when confronted with someone who claims I’m not a genuine rancher. Like I want to look cool
If they start asking questions cut them off and then ask if they’re trying to start a dick measuring contest or get your number for a date
“I don’t say ‘howdy’ i dont have a green egg, I don’t know what temp or what wood to use for smoke, I don’t have a revolver pinned to my waist, I don’t chew tobacco, but what I do is look good and I don’t need your approval, partner” I tip my hat finish my whiskey and coke and leave
You sound so much like my drinking husband lol
That’s exactly what he would do in that situation, and it’s what anybody should do. He looks better in that getup than most anyway, and I’ll bet you do too
Green egg is a dated reference. If you’re a cool kid in cowboy town you have a blackstone and a traeger smoker.
There’d be the occasional guy from Texas or wherever interrogating us to see if we were “real” cowboys
Tell him you’re wanted by 8 different federal agencies
How’d you know that
What do you plan on wearing this with?
Generally speaking, if you’re masc-presenting and wear a hat that isn’t some kind of baseball hat or beanie, it’ll probably be seen as a little weird. Hats are just less common these days than they were in the past. I could imagine someone wearing something like this without it looking weird or bad, but it really depends on the context of that person’s wardrobe. I’d strongly recommend against wearing something like this with jeans, sneakers, and a graphic tee - you’ll just look like a fedora kid, if that makes sense.
Also, the region of the US you live in will impact how people look at clothing that could be considered western wear. It’s not that out of the ordinary to see it throughout the South (and I’m assuming throughout the West as well).
I’ve lived in the west and southwest my whole life and over here literally anyone can wear a hat like this. I’m talking literally from fascists to turbolibs to people on anarchist compounds to MLs.
Will nobody bat an eye if I wore a 10 gallon to Costco
At least around here, the only person who would acknowledge a 10 gallon would be someone else wearing one saying they like your hat. You could dress in full blown Yosemite Sam cosplay and no one would say a thing.
Shorts t shirt and some Jordan 1 lows
I walked back to their apartment after researching what they said and said some things which made them close their window and end their windowsill “comedy show”
Following an American back to his home is insane lol. I rather not end up in someone’s crawlspace
I want to wear a 10 gallon with shorts and Jordan 1 lows, insanity isn’t the right word
how could one hat be 700 dollars, that’s more than all the clothes in my closet combined
I am a pale bald man and thus require protection from the elements. I also have always loved hats, and I was definitely a fedora kid.
Personally, I prefer smaller hats and caps for the city, especially if I’m riding a bike. I wear cycling caps, bucket hats, factory caps, berets, etc.
I like proper hats, but have found that both the fedora or teardrop crown and the cattleman crown have too much stigma. Instead I generally wear a telescope crown, that is similar to a pork pie. I currently only have one such hat, a really big palm leaf straw, and it feels pretty audacious to wear in the city. I used to have a smaller one, with only a 2” brim, and that felt quite at home. I also used to have some felt hats in the same shape, but they needed too much care and are expensive to replace, so I have not.
Have you seen this denim repro 30’s hat? slightly better coverage and style to a bucket hat but not the associations with a Fedora or Rancher.
In case anyone needs help looking for these, they’re usually called “daisy mae” hats.
That’s real cute. Some of the WWII denim stuff is really dumb and cute. the navy had a shawl collar denim work jacket! so silly!
Damn I need that
Japanese repro denim brands make them, like this one from Two Cats Brand
Oh hell yeah. Thanks comrade
And here’s a less fancy Chinese brand making something similar
Thank you all for the sources! I had only seen it from wwiiimpressions.com but a) they’re chuds (predictably) and b) they’re sold out. But I got a great pair of boots from them once upon a time.
Heehee that was the one I linked! I love TCB.
you got me looking at Stetson’s again. I like the variety they call “outdoor hat.” They’re a lot less than $700.
Wear whatever makes you happy!
I would personally be afraid to wear a hat that expensive but I appreciate that you rock it.
i think it would look good with a blazer. and with either a dark blue shirt or shoes that match the hat
