2024, Gatherings, Travel, Uncategorized

Cowboy Chic

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I am attending a conference next week in Dallas, TX for psychology regulatory boards. I attend two of them a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. These conferences are rather dull, given the topics we deal with. The organization that sponsors these conferences always tries to spice up the week with a big party on the Friday night. There is always a theme for the party, and it is no big surprise that the theme for this party is Cowboy Chic.

We have been encouraged to come in costume, such as classic western wear, fringe and leather, dresses with western twist, clunky and chunky jewelry or outsized belt buckles, and sequined cowboy hats. I own neither a cowboy hat nor cowboy boots. I have very little jewelry, and hardly anything that is sequined. No gingham or leather or fringe, either. I have no intention of buying any of the above, either. I can hardly wait to see what the folks from the Canadian Maritimes wear!

The party is on November 1, which is also All Saints Day. I would prefer to dress up like my favorite saint or martyr than dress up in western wear. I suppose, living where I do with real cowboys, that Cowboy Chic isn’t that fun or alluring. Joseph Gabriel of the Rosary, also known as the Gaucho Priest, is the patron saint of cowboys, He had leprosy, so the makeup for that would be rather challenging. I may just show up in jeans and a sweatshirt.

We used to have costume parties when we were in graduate school in Winnipeg. The most memorable was when I dressed like a large strawberry for a Halloween party. I wore tights, and the two sided pink costume went down to my knees. I got a call in the middle of the party that one of my clients was in the ER with suicidal ideation and needed to see me ASAP. It was a little hard to get the ER staff to take me seriously in that getup. My client, despite their distress, though it was hilarious.

What would you wear for Cowboy Chic? What was the last costume party you went to?

37 thoughts on “Cowboy Chic”

  1. What would I wear… ? Well, if it were to be in an open-carry state, I’m sure that someone could loan me a six-shooter.
    Or maybe I’d go the safer route, dressing all in white and wearing a black mask like the Lone Ranger, Hi-yo, Silver!

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  6. I have a beautiful bead-embroidered and fringed deerskin jacket I inherited from my mom. IDK how old it is but assume it’s from the 1950s, when they were stationed in New Mexico (Air Force). The one time I tried it on it was too large, but that was a few years ago and there’s more of me than there was. If it fit, I could wear that…very carefully!

    –Crow Girl

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  9. There’s a black cowboy hat down in our costume area. I look pretty good in it, except I don’t wear cowboy hats and it just looks wrong. But I did wear it, along with a white sweatshirt to be the ‘Bad snowman’ one year…

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  10. Sequins on anything don’t say “chic” to me. I would wear, obviously, one of my homemade cowboy shirts.

    Regarding cowboy hats, there’s an old saying:

    Cowboy hats are like hemorrhoids. Sooner or later every a—hole gets one.

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  12. We used to get dressed up at work for many years before pandemic, but I kind of lost track of when I did what. I think one of the last ones I did that was memorable for me as Steve Irwin. Khaki shorts, khaki shirt. I bought a pair of brown boots and then I made a crocodile out of a big huge piece of green upholstery foam. It was hysterical. I eon a prize.

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  13. I would go paladin, black, black hat, black shirt, black pants, black boots, black jacket, and a black string tie. I’m trying to remember what the last party I went to in costume was and I’m not able to pull out of my house the motorcycle with the black leathers and the helmet with the black glass over the front so that I was really enjoying people looking at the uncomfortably not who the hell I was, when they got the mask and they relief and that they should’ve known

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  14. Black cowboy hats are very special
    my grandfather wore a classic open road by Stetson every day and use that as his brand as a bricklayer, Stetson, white shirt and a bowtie every day ended up being made foreman
    I have a bunch of open roads in Silver belly, which is a typical color, but I have one special one in black that’s not for sale unlike most of my hats
    they’re hard to find for no particular reason, but it’s just a fact I also have the hop a lot gas style hat with the fever slide down the front where that one with a mule in the back of the hat
    Kevin Costner that style when he’s playing his cowboy roles

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  15. I don’t have a cowoy hat. I do have a western-style shirt….somewhere…..and a pair of old harness boots…..maybe in the back of a closet…..somewhere. I woul need time to figure it out. I think I have a string tie too.

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      2. First verse lyrics:
        I’m an old cowhand from the Rio Grande
        But my legs ain’t bowed and my cheeks ain’t tanned
        I’m a cowboy who never saw a cow
        Never roped a steer ’cause I don’t know how
        Sure ain’t a fixin’ to start in now

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