Farmer Fashion

One of the required courses for my program at Olds College is called Range and Forage Crop Management.  Near the beginning of the course, we learn about the history of ranching in Western Canada and for each new class of students, the teacher inevitably points to the cowboy fashions from about 100-150 years ago and says, "As you can see, the fashions haven't changed much."  At that point, everyone stealthily looks around, half- embarrassed, half-amused, to see that it's true.  Most of us are wearing jeans, and boots and are sporting interesting tan lines from our summer of work.  Not everyone wears button up shirts anymore, unless it's at some fancy event.  Every so often, I remember that day in class and start thinking about farmer fashions.  I'd like to give an insider's view of this topic to those city folk who think farmer fashion is simple.

Let me start by explaining that it is very difficult for city folk to imitate farmer fashion.  I always get a kick out of going to FarmFair in Edmonton or watching the Calgary Stampede on television.  It's just too easy to tell who is and isn't a farmer.  I'm not sure I could even point out the differences.  All I know is that the city folks are clearly trying too hard to fit in, although they do get the stereotypical basics down pretty well.

Dad's typical work day wardrobe.

For those city folks who want to look a little more natural at the next rodeo, here are a few explanations of the basic parts of farmer fashion, from head to toe:

Headgear:

There are two basic categories of headgear: winter protection and hats.  Winter protection usually takes the form of a toque, but some farmers like the fur hats or caps with ear flaps.  It's really just personal preference.

Hats are bit different.  In my experience, there are three main hats that a farmer might wear.  The first is a cowboy hat.  Usually it's ranchers and rodeo cowboys that wear these more, but many farmers have a spare cowboy hat to wear to rodeos and such.  Then of course there are the baseball caps.  We don't buy these.  They are forms of advertising, swag that is given out to farmers from various companies.  We don't really care much what company logo is on the cap (unless it's a machinery dealer).  Caps go through phases of life.  First, they begin as the "town cap," which can be worn into town for business.  Next, they become work caps, gradually getting filthier and more faded as time goes on.  Eventually, they are too gross or too worn to wear any more.  Depending on the farmer, the cap may then be either thrown out, or used to decorate a fenceline.  The final hat is the all-important, though seldom-used straw hat.  As far as I know, most Canadian farmers don't use these anymore.  However, there are a few of us who keep a battered old straw hat for those few stifling hot days when the field work has to be done, but a cap is just too warm.

Shirts:

As I mentioned, not everyone wears button up shirts all the time anymore.  Those are often reserved for fancier events (especially for men).  For work and leisure, the T-shirt is now king, although it has not completely replaced the good ol' plaid button-up.  Sometimes a T-shirt and button-up can be paired, but that's not as common as the movies make it seem.  Hoodies are also pretty popular when the weather cools down.  Let me just make a quick comment on tucking rules.  There really aren't any.  Some people tuck their shirts (button-up or T-shirt) into their jeans, and others leave them intucked.  For the city folks out there, if you're trying to blend in at a rodeo, don't go crazy if you try to tuck your shirt in.  It's a dead giveaway to see a too-neatly tucked shirt.  Farmers don't have time for that.  Just tuck and go.  Or tuck on the go.  Sweaters and hoodies are never to be tucked in.

Jeans:

Oh, dear.  Where do I begin?  There are no hard and fast rules about jeans.  However, there are certain jeans that are clearly made more for city folks, because farmers just don't wear them.  For example, most farmers don't buy pre-faded, pre-ripped, or flimsy jeans.  Sparkles aren't all that popular either.  We break the jeans in to our bodies, wear them thin, and make them faded and ripped on our own.  Most farmers just wear standard, sensible jeans.  Like caps, jeans start out as "good" jeans for town and eventually become work jeans, where they are ripped, faded, and generally destroyed until they are no longer wearable.  It's a sad day when your favourite pair of work jeans finally just falls apart and can't be fixed anymore.

Before I move on too footwear, let me just make few notes about tucking one's jeans into one's boots:

 - It is not okay to tuck jeans into cowboy boots.  If your jeans are too tight to go over your boots, you need different jeans.  It isn't fashionable to have the boots on the outside.  It's just weird.  You can disagree, but this is my humble opinion.

 - The purpose of wearing rubber boots is to protect the bottom of your pants.  Tuck your pants into your rubber boots.  Otherwise, you might as well not wear them.

Footwear:

We don't all wear cowboy boots all the time.  Let's just get that myth out of the way right away.  Actually, farmers have a wide variety of footwear.  In order to deal with this huge topic efficiently, I'll make a list of the various types of footwear with short descriptions.

Cowboy boots - stylish and useful for riding horses, they are shockingly comfortable unless you need to walk long distances

Rubber boots - good for keeping your pant legs from getting muddy

Winterized (insulated) rubber boots - because regular rubber boots just freeze solid in the winter - you might as well wear metal boots once your regular rubber boots freeze

Running shoes - super comfy, good for just about anything, but hard to clean if you walk through a muddy corral in them

"Crocs" or "Dawgs" - this is not recommended for safety reasons, but quite a few farmers like to wear these on the tractor

Work boots - like running shoes, these are good for just about anything and if they have steel toes, you can drop anything you like and not get hurt

A snapshot of the variety of footwear seen on Aggies at Olds College.

That was a lot to get through and I have really only scratched the surface.  Hopefully this was helpful for anyone wanting to fit in at the next rodeo or county fair!  Or maybe it was just good for a laugh.  I'd be okay with that, too.