Antelope Staff
Coming from the mild weathered Northwest region of the United States and moving to the Midwest for school has dramatically changed choices of clothing styles for me. Being interested in men’s clothing styles since the beginning of my college career in 2017, has led me to explore different styles of men’s clothes for a while now.
Being from the Northwest, raincoats, light sweatshirts, and jeans are pretty much the standard men’s clothing choices in the area. The heavy amounts of rainfall, paired with mild summers make casual clothing choices like the list above year round options for many. With temperatures all year averaging 40s in the winter and 70s in the summer you don’t get too many dramatic days in the single digit or negative temperatures in the winter and rarely does it exceed 85 degrees in the summer.
Moving to the Midwest, however, has changed my view on clothing choices dramatically. My first year in Nebraska temperatures hit the negatives, not just in winter, but also in the spring, this dramatically colder time of the year almost forced me to invest in a few winter jackets that were thick and insulated as well as the thickest material of sweatpants to avoid the freezing temperatures. This has introduced lots of layering in my everyday clothing choices, thermals or spandex underneath thick wool or cotton clothing items is almost essential to staying decently warm on a normal winter day in Nebraska with temperatures in the negatives and wind strong enough to blow someone over.
Tech wear is a staple in the Northwest for keeping the people who live there comfortable and stylish in the cooler climate. Brands such as North Face and Eddie Bauer are very popular because of the comfortableness and semi-thick layers they have to offer for the climate they are in. While Carhartt and Buckle are more popular here in the Midwest probably due to their reputation for having harder materials to withstand outdoor labor as well as day to day tasks of the people that live here.
These differences are something to note when thinking about what to spend your money on when living in either climate. I have personally redone most of my closet due to the switch in climates to harder, tougher, and warmer materials instead of the lighter, softer, and thinner materials I often purchased while living in the Northwest.
