You can try for Texas style in a pair of slacks, but it’s like a duck in a tuxedo—it never looks right.
Demand denim
You can try for Texas style in a pair of slacks, but it’s like a duck in a tuxedo—it never looks right.
“Denim jeans have always served the cowboy well,” Phyllis says. They’re durable and they protect from the elements. “Wrangler and Levi Strauss are the normal brands, but there are hundreds of varieties now to choose from.”
See ’em, starch ’em, and sport ’em, is the motto, with one addendum: don’t sag ’em.
And remember to check where the hip pockets ride; some are so low on your hindquarters, going horseback with a wallet in there will leave you feeling like you squatted on your spurs.
And no high waters, please. Alyssa says the bottoms of the jeans should “stack” a little bit when you’re sitting down. If you usually wear a 32” inseam, go ahead and bump it up to a 34” for cowboy wear, since they’ll need to go over your boots—which they should always do. Never tuck them in your boots unless you want to look like a sheep in a herd of goats.
Yes, there’s a lot of pretty stitching on the boots’ front quarter, but keep it to yourself, for now.
Buckle down and belt up
A belt is an absolute requirement. Don’t even consider leaving the house without one. It should be leather, hopefully hand-tooled with coils, curlicues, rosettes, longhorn cattle and artful renderings of wildflowers of the Texas range. And all the better if it’s anchored by an eye-catching buckle big enough to serve steak and beans on.
Where you get that buckle is, well, about as unsettled as a jackrabbit in a horse stampede. Not everybody can win their buckle in a rodeo. “Sporting a genuine trophy buckle that someone else may have won—while some may disagree with me on this—is perfectly acceptable,” Alyssa says on her blog.
Bottom line: Retro is in, so there shouldn’t be any problem with using an old championship buckle you find in a Western shop. Think of it as a tribute to the cowboy who won it and the rodeo lifestyle’s bruises and broken bones—and your gratitude not to have any of your own.
An ace up your sleeve
Shirts can be pretty simple: cotton, button-down, long sleeve. Plain white can work, as can plaid. Piping? OK, just don’t go all Roy Rogers and put enough on there to knock Dale Evans off her horse. Make your dance partner cross-eyed and she’ll be Texas two-stepping on your $1,000 pirarucu boots.
“All cowboys know the Western shirt was born out of necessity,” says Phyllis. “You need long sleeves to protect you from the burning sun and a collar that can be turned up in the heat, or the cold.”
And if you’re riding, cotton is crucial. “You don’t want some high-tech fabric that won’t give if it gets wrapped around a limb. It could pull you off the horse,” she says. Cotton also breathes when it gets moist—important on the range or the dance floor.
