Most men would have gone with the suit, the knotted tie and the lace-up shoes when attending a serious event with, for example, the president-elect of the United States of America.
But Sen. Ken Salazar went with the cowboy hat and bolo tie when he accepted the nomination for U.S. interior secretary Wednesday in Chicago.
The look, distinctly Western and absolutely Salazar, caused pundits across the blogosphere to wonder why men from this half of the country seem to think cowboy gear — in particular, the hat — is appropriate for situations far removed from the ranch.
When President-elect Barack Obama introduced former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, his pick for agriculture secretary on the same Chicago stage, the nominee did not wear overalls and a John Deere cap.
Businessmen from deep within the Pacific Northwest’s logging regions do not swan around Rotary Club meetings in heavy flannel shirts and hats with built-in ear mufflers.
So what is the deal with the cowboy hat? The Washington Post asked the question.
Bloggers are having fun ridiculing (or championing) the outfit Salazar wore to his big introduction. Wrote one, imagining what Obama was thinking when he hugged Salazar on the dais: “Geez, this is kind of embarrassing. I hope Michelle isn’t watching. Here I am, president-elect, up on a podium with J.R. Ewing . . . I’m afraid to look down. What if he’s wearing spurs?”
MSNBC anchor David Shuster quipped, “I hear from one of our correspondents that you’re not supposed to wear a cowboy hat like that indoors unless you’re at a square dance or an indoor livestock auction. What was Salazar thinking?”
Probably, Salazar was thinking: trademark.
He was wearing a hat, same as he has worn for virtually every public appearance since he was sworn in as Colorado attorney general on Jan. 14, 2003.
Same as he wore at campaign rallies for Obama this fall. Same as he wore on a stage with Hillary Rodham Clinton in October.
Same as he wore when Colorado’s votes were delivered to Obama during the Democratic National Convention. Same as he wore for a grip-and-grin shot with child-welfare advocate Marian Wright Edelman and singer and actress Jennifer Lopez after an event at the Denver Art Museum. Same as he wore two years ago, when he shared the stage with Obama at a Democratic get-out-the-vote rally in Aurora.
“It’s a way of life,” said Trent Johnson, owner of Greeley Hat Works, which in less than two weeks will celebrate its 100th year of making cowboy hats. “A hat is an extension of your personality.
“It’s like Fonzie and his leather jacket. He wore that to Hawaii. Water-skiing. It’s who you are.”
And if you are a statewide politician in Colorado, or a nominee for a job that is deeply tied to Western lands, it helps if “who you are” involves the wearing of the big hat, a symbol that tries to say: “I may have a fancy job in the East, but I remain one of you. Really!”
Obama’s birth state of Hawaii enjoys its own unique sartorial code, an approach to everyday fashion that parallels the Western look: the billowy, flowery Aloha shirt. Hawaiians wear them to work. They slip into them for weddings. Business meetings? News conferences? The Hawaiian shirt is common.
In terms of regional dress codes, only the Aloha shirt rivals the cowboy hat’s visual impact and its ability to make a statement by virtue of its mere presence, as if to say:
I value and honor traditional Hawaiian ways of life. We are different in Hawaii.
Just as the wide-brimmed, high-crowned hat says for Salazar:
I value and honor traditional Western ways of life. We are different in the West.
If the Obama camp requests a Greeley Hat Works cowboy hat, Johnson would be delighted to make one for the new commander-in-chief.
President George W. Bush has two in his wardrobe already.
Douglas Brown: 303-954-1395 or djbrown@denverpost.com
