Thoughts on Country Thots
The Calgary Stampede has come and gone. The Stampede grounds are left with little more than sprinklings of mini donut sugar dust to prove there had just been ten debaucherous days of western-themed fun, tears, and inevitable exhaustion. I have been a devout Stampede goer since I was born. Both of my parents have always loved it and worked the kinds of jobs that would get them invited to parties, rodeos, chuckwagons, all the goods. As I got older my Stampede fixation shifted from the midway rides and food to the party tents. The singular beacon that remains as a fixture of my younger stampede self which I have carried with me proudly though each year of the ‘pede is the exhilaration of nailing a country (cunt-ry?) themed outfit. I had at one time hoped my Stampede fits would put me on a best dressed list alongside Alexa Chung at Glastonbury for the “hottest summer outfits” round up, but that day has yet to come.
At the expense of sounding like a broken record I am now going to reiterate the importance of drawing from the past in order to influence the future and create a present. I mentioned this in my Vivienne Westwood piece, but I am vehement that a large contributor to her success was her understanding and appreciation of what already exists, not dismissing it, but using it as a catapult to bring her ideas to a physical manifestation of so much more than they could have been on their own. I digress, but I think this logic is applicable to the concept of dressing for a theme.
If you ignore a theme you end up standing out for all for all the wrong reasons, drawing unwanted and pitied attention to yourself. In my experience a lot of the people who protest a theme are doing so in hopes of blending in and looking regular, but this in turn becomes a self fulfilling prophecy in that their attempt to be a fly on the wall makes them one of the most noticeable people in the crowd. We’ll call this person the Fly. By trying to remain true to their sartorially shy selves, the Fly has instead drawn more attention to themselves and more often gives the vibe that they thought they were too cool for your fun and games, but guess what? If you can’t laugh at yourself, we don’t want you at the party anyway!
Transversely, the Queen Bee (henceforth known as Bee) is the person who goes full monty with the theme and commits HARD to the bit. The unique edge or point of view the Bee uses as their portal into their top bitch status can take on a few different forms. The first being humor, however not always effective, when done right it is applauded. One year my brother dressed in denim cut off short shorts, and one of the giant foam cowboy hats. I have never been more proud of him. The second is full frontal imitation. This for sure teeters on the edge of costume vs clothing (an important semantic argument we spent all of first year of my MA defining) which can go wrong, but when done right it not only shows a person's sartorial prowess, but likely their intelligence and craftsmanship. In the case of Stampede I once saw a woman perfectly replicate one of Dolly Parton’s bedazzled (possibly Bob Mackie?) ensembles including the hair and she won the night to me. She did not have prosthetic breasts which to me kept the outfit in the realm of homage vs humor, and while I think that’s a very fine line between these two categories, the woman could have done no wrong in my eyes. The reason she succeeded is because she left no crumbs, she WAS Dolly.
The bottom (in the least hierarchical value system sense of the word) resides the rest of the colony. They could have been a fly, maybe they wanted to but their friends peer pressured them into wearing a hat or boots. This category also includes the denim cut offs, white tank top and boots or hat girlies. They’re basic but still stayed on theme- thank you for your service.
The subgenre in between Bee and the colony is the Worker Bee, who elects to stay within the standards of the theme but allows their personality and taste to inform how they perceive the theme. In the case of Stampede even the choice to wear black vs blue denim and a fun vest brings you into this domain. I’d say the colony is typically most popular but this year I saw a lot more Worker Bees than years passed. Albeit this was my first year going to the tents sober so I was actually able to take in what I was seeing, but the personal style of my cowboy brethren felt more novel than what it used to be. This was not surprising at all since fashion has become more prominent in everyday discourse. As within the popularity of any trend or phenomena (in this case the general awareness of fashion), people try to rise to the top of the hierarchy to be Queen Bee and because of that a lot of the Worker Bee’s possessed Lady in Waiting potential. As more people become interested in and comfortable with fashion and personal style, I hope I get to expand on these, admittedly very condensed, categories next year. Yeehaw bitches🤠🫶🏻
