This has been the strangest thread. I've thought about the term webfoot and Mountain Cowgirl mentioned - drug store cowboy - several times while reading it. I can't help but think this thread would have been a lot more fun in the old Bull Session. LOL
That said, I wear what I want and I don't give a **** what anybody thinks. At the same time, I don't care what anybody else wears. I choose a hat or cap for the day based on the weather of the day and it never occurred to me that anybody else cared.
I rarely go to town, but if I do, I still don't care. I try to be as neat and clean as possible, but other than that, I just don't care what anybody thinks. I'll have on a hat or cap based on the weather of the day and don't care if anybody thinks I look like a cowboy or not. I wear a sloppy-looking t-shirt two sizes too big everywhere I go because concealed means concealed and I don't care how it looks to anybody else.
The number one cowgirl here wears tennis shoes when she's not wearing rubber boots, but she might have on one of those dreaded 'flat brim' hats in the worst of the summer to try to keep her face from burning up even more. She wears shorts in the summer and bibs in the winter, but dresses a little nicer if she goes to town - kinda like ladies do. Still, though, in most cases nobody would be able to look at her and tell she can sew up prolapses or pull nuts out of cutting bulls with the best of the cowboys.
Bottom line, we don't care what people think about us based on what we wear and we sure don't judge others based on what they wear.
Well, first Texan, to a certain point, we do "judge" and many, many people do, but just don't want to admit it. And, what a person wears and what they talk about can really depend on where they live. I've got more experience in "living in the wrong place" and "talking about the wrong things" than I would like to admit.
To a point, wife and I do "care what folks think". We have never lived in a truly Western area, like Cody, Wyoming. Where we've lived, basically nobody wore a cowboy hat on a daily basis and nobody talked rodeo, ranching or farming. Even businesses around the livestock auction we attend, don't even know it's there, care less or even, with the ones that know the auction is there, would like to see it close/move. Obviously, there is a certain amount of livestock smell that comes from the outside of the auction. To us, the smell is ok, but to businesses close by, definitely not that way. We don't sell or buy livestock, but just like to watch. Like, going to a horse auction, just to watch.
During our summer months, except when going to/at a rodeo, the livestock auction, or out to dinner at a country-western nightclub, we are in shorts, t-shirt and tennis shoes. That is especially true when we are on our boat. We just happen to love our western attire, but nothing fancy/flashy looking.
In fact, we bought two ProRodeo face masks to wear. They say "ProRodeo" right on the front. I miss my old "competing" days, but, with age/health, some things just have to end. Wife and I don't just wear our western clothes to hit a nightclub on Friday and/or Saturday nights, we wear them for much more than that.
Places we've lived, where wearing western attire was so-called "out of place", except when attending a local rodeo or nightclub: Orange County, California, Jacksonville, Florida and somewhat here where we live now. But, where we live now, people don't look at a person wearing a cowboy hat and boots, like where we lived before. It's much more accepted here, but a lot of young folks here look like they just left living in Los Angeles, California. Seriously.