When it comes to cowboy style, everybody wants to dress the part — right down to their hot-trending wild rags.
This is country core at its core. Those flour-sack rags that have been a staple in every cowboy’s life have utilitarian roots on the range. Need to wipe the sweat off your brow, rig your saddle, cover your mouth on a dusty trail, blindfold a skittish horse, stay warm when winter rolls in, clean your gun, or handle a hot plate around the fire? There’s a wild rag for that. And there has been ever since the mid-1800s — even if they weren’t always called that.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the ultimate multitasker from way back when has been adopted (and marketed afresh with a new generation of Western fashionistas) by the Western fashion world. Suddenly everybody wants style that looks good and can still multitask.
We asked Jodi Weishaar Hendrickson of Fringe Scarves in Weatherford, Texas, to walk us through how she ended up making wild rags and what’s made them the latest go-to for everyone looking for an authentic, featherweight Western statement piece.
“I grew up on a ranch in South Dakota, so we used them when we’d go out to feed in the middle of the winter — it wasn’t a fashion statement,” Hendrickson says. “I wanted to reinvent the wild rag. Before I started making mine, it was just polka dots and paisleys. Now, to us, Fringe Scarves are the exclamation point of your outfit.”
Wild Wearers, Wild Designers
Some of Hendrickson’s head-turning Fringe Scarves customers thus far: Miranda Lambert, Post Malone, Lainey Wilson, and Shaboozey. As for her most head-turning collections: One of our favorites is the Artist’s Collection, which showcases work from C&I-beloved painters Donna Howell-Sickles, Jon Flaming, Dolan Geiman, and Kevin Chupik, among other notables.
How Much A Rag’ll Run Ya
What will a walk on the wild-rag side set you back? Prices vary among brands. On the lowest end, an old-school oversize bandana can be had for a couple of bucks at a secondhand store, while a fine, high-design Lucchese wild rag approaches $350. A truly elevated luxury Fringe Blue Label line from Hendrickson’s collection — made with ultra-thick Jacquard silk and hand-rolled edges — starts at $175. Suffice it to say, you’re not gonna be wiping up cowboy-coffee spills around the campfire with some of these rags.
Tie One One: How To Wear Your Wild Rag
Some of the most popular ways to wear wild rags, Fringe Scarves’ Jodi Hendrickson says, are the trusty triangle fold in the front, folded up to tie around your neck and secured with a scarf slide, or tied with the expert level buckaroo knot. Larger sizes can also be worn shawl like over your shoulders. Speaking of large, you caballeros will want to look at the Ranchi Rags — a collection in the Fringe Brand — for the supersize 44 x 44 that really lets you tie one on cowboy-cool style.
Find The Fringe: How to Tie Book and a how-to video on the many ways of tying wild rags at fringescarves.com.
PHOTOGRAPHY: (all images) courtesy Fringe Scarves
