What Wisconsin's wearing

Hi everyone, this week’s style report comes to you from writer Ali Royals, who traveled to Wisconsin for the World Lumberjack Finals (I love Ali’s daily outfit series, which she puts together via her outfit prompt hotline. Recent prompts include Viva la Vida, the fourth studio album by Coldplay, and wisdom teeth). Enjoy her true blue reporting from America’s Heartland.

How often is one asked to leave the Island of Manhattan and embark on a voyage ever-closer toward America’s Heartbeat? And how often does one have the pleasure of saying yes to such a request? For me, it was just this once. So here I am, in the tiny town of Hayward, Wisconsin, with 10 other miscellaneous New York City-based creatives.

The captain of our journey is Abby Nierman of Midwest Holiday, a brand dedicated to opening the world’s eyes to the beauty and charm of the American Midwest. And my eyes were opened alright. It’s my first time here in Wisconsin — the same of which goes for most of us staying in what can only be described as The Ultimate Summer Camp Cabin on a Lake. The 11 of us have come to see all that Hayward has to offer — supper clubs and lazy rivers and a 143 foot long ‘muskie’ fish statue — the crown jewel of the trip being the World Lumberjack Finals, held annually right there in town.

Hayward, as it stands, is worn and American, shacks dotting the main drag, chipped paint on the sides of the town’s most esteemed haunt, Moccasin Bar, hand-painted comic sans font on the signs of roadside fruit stands.

Despite it being the World Lumberjack Finals, the crowd is largely local, dressed casually or as caricatures of lumberjacks. They come from neighboring cities and faraway lands: Winter, Wisconsin. Ukraine. West Monroe, New York.

Word travels fast in a place like this. “Are you girls with the New York crew?” the two ladies working the Lumberjack cookie stand ask. They’re not selling actual cookies, to be clear, but thick slices of cedar with the outline of a lumberjack spray painted across the front in bright red.

We are undeniably a bit out of place. I’m wearing a black L.A. Apparel tank top, Ralph Lauren denim skirt, Durango boots, strands of suede tassels that I picked up from the local leather shop wrapped around my neck like a skinny scarf. Gutes is wearing heels.

I came to Wisconsin with no preconceived stylistic notions. Or maybe a few — at one point I find myself genuinely wondering if I’m the first girl to wear Raimundo Langlois jeans in the Hayward MarketPlace Foods and Liquors.

Spectators at the Finals join in a communal chorus, chanting “Yo ho, yo ho.” They eat cheese curds and sip summer shandies, buy their children inflatable axes and ice cream cones. They walk around in tied-off plaid button-downs with the sleeves cut off, suspenders and sensible shoes, beat up denim of varying lengths, graphic t-shirts sporting slogans like “Don’t worry liver, you’ll be fine.”

There were a few exceptional outfits, and people, who caught my eye. I was genuinely moved by my conversations with each of them — the way their eyes lit up, their eager excitement to talk to me about what they’d elected to put on for the event, what made them, at least sartorially, them.

Age: 50

Hometown: North Carolina

I spot Russell’s hair first: a neon head of lettuce shimmering in the heat that flashes into my peripheral vision. I get up mid Men’s Standing Block Chop final so I don’t miss him and am immediately charmed by his presence: coolly kind, friendly, open. I admire his quiet confidence, his sturdy grip on his handheld steadicam, his wrists each wrapped in large-faced watches.

The story behind his look: My jersey is from the company I work for. I like my hair to coordinate with the colors of my outfit, so I had to go with green. I made my glasses out of bailing wire. I took the original frames off, wrapped wire around them. Then I use nail polish to paint them. We just had the Fourth of July, so that’s where the red, white, and blue came from.

Age: 28

Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri

Cinnamon’s skirt is tucked into the shorts underneath, creating a draping effect like the final curtain drawn at the ballet. When I tell her how beautiful it looks, she says she mainly did it out of functionality. “I honestly did it so I would stop flashing people.” The constellation tattooed across her collarbone and the Coppertone sheen of her oversized glasses suit her perfectly.

What inspired your look? It was hot. I love to wear skirts and dresses with my tennis shoes.

Favorite part of your outfit? The pink strapless thing I’ve got going on. And it matches my nails. And there’s shorts underneath my skirt.

Age: 48

Hometown: Wisconsin

Marissa is here to watch her son, Devin Blair, compete. In fact, he wins later that evening, zipping down the slippery boom run in quick, even strides, down and back, 180 feet (16 logs) in 12.39 seconds — approximately 77 logs per minute. Marissa is both cheery and subdued. She asks me specifically not to photograph her toes.

Her inspiration: It’s a combination of living in the North Woods and wanting to feel good. I just throw stuff together. I didn’t even realize my hat matched my outfit.

A word from her daughter: Her hat was a quick dollar store buy! My mom always says she’s going to start her own clothing brand.

Her personal style: My personal style is modern. It depends on what mood I’m in. I’m just trying to be me.

Age: Both 15

Hometown: Hayward Wisconsin & Wisconsin by way of Florida

I ask if they’re best friends, and they exchange that look that suggests newness to their best-friendship, though they both quickly say yesssss in the same upward, excited intonation. They’re here today mostly out of curiosity. Despite living in Hayward all, or most of, their lives, they’d never attended the Lumberjack Championships until today.

Lola’s inspiration: I saw all of this at Hollister and American Eagle, and was like Oh my gosh, I need to have that. It’s just my vibe, Y2K with a little class to it, and so much fun to style. I love the Kalogeras sisters and their style, too. And their hair. I love the style in New York. I want to live there one day.

Olivia’s inspiration: I’ve been into streetwear style recently. I saw this top at TJ Maxx and I loved it. And I love looking on Pinterest.

I run into them before I leave for the evening and they ask to take a photo with me. I give them my Instagram and my number. “We’re so glad we met you,” they text me as we ride off to the Fish Fry for dinner. “You made us feel so much more confident.”

Age: 20

Hometown: Hayward, Wisconsin

I like the sharp contrasted blocks of color in Avery’s outfit — the declarative pink of her tank-top, its laces not unlike tangled headphones, the vibrant whites of her Birkenstocks, her toenails, the KIINI-style bikini top that dominated all beaches and pools in 2015. A decade later, it’s still working for me.

Avery’s twin sister is competing today. Last year, she won the boom run. Today, Avery is coaching her.

The inspiration behind her look: I went for a summery look today. I wanted to be in something bright and colorful that went with my tan.

Her typical style: I love Free People. I like clothes that are loose and relaxing. I’m a track athlete, so I like fitness-type stuff too.

Age: Both 19

Hometown: Hayward, Wisconsin and Egan, Minnesota

Hannah tells me she made her dress, and Harley’s matching shirt, out of an old tablecloth she found in a thrift shop a few days earlier. “My best friend taught me to sew two weeks ago,” she explains. “I saw the table cloth and just knew it was gonna become a dress.”

Hannah’s typical style: Casual, comfortable, functional. I wouldn’t say this is my normal style.

Harley’s typical style: Not this, usually. More like working clothes or athletic clothes.

Harley on how it feels to wear a tablecloth: It feels nice, especially on a hot day. It’s really light and flowy.

Age: 62

Hometown: Hayward, Wisconsin

I can’t quite tell if Andy is a lumberjack or just dressed like one as I intercept him walking toward the cheese curd truck. He’s hesitant but happy to talk to me, cracking jokes about how his tongue-in-cheek lumberjack outfit is irritating his wife a little bit. He says he likes to come to events in town, and this is the biggest.

The story behind his look: I just thought it would be funny.

His typical style: Shorts, flip-flops, and a t-shirt.

Age: 25

Hometown: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Jack is in town hosting a bunch of friends from college at his parents’ cabin on the lake.

The story behind his look: This is a Blatt’s Beer shirt. I got it out of my dad’s closet. He got it from someone who worked in a Blatt’s factory, this old brewery out in Milwaukee. Blatt’s, Schlitz — I’ll drink those beers whenever just to feel old school sometimes. I got my shoes at Plato’s Closet for $10. When I looked them up online after, I think they were $60. My socks are pretty boring. Shorts I’ve had for a couple years. They’re probably thrifted, or from Old Navy. I try to wear as much thrifted stuff as I can.

Jack’s typical style: Vintage, colorful. I feel like I’m pretty basic overall. I’m a big shoe guy. I like to accessorize with shoes.

Age: Old enough to know better, too young to resist

Hometown: Louisiana

I’m not particularly religious but I can only liken my experience speaking with CC to what it must feel like talking to God. Standing behind the table of a jewelry booth selling, his eyes are rimmed with pale blue, his pupils impossibly huge.

Soothing and charming, poetic, profound, and punctually funny in equal measure. I ask him if it’s his booth. He answers in a beautiful almost-riddle, spoken word poetry. “There’s nothing I would achieve, acquire, or accomplish if it wasn’t for a lady. This world would cease to be. Everything that I do, everything that I create, is a lady’s reality.”

Which is to say, it’s not his booth, but he helps the woman who owns it.

When I ask his name, how old he is, he asks, “Do I owe you money?” When I ask where he’s from, he says, “My mama.” And he means it.

How would you describe your style? My style is everyone who made me who I am. It takes “we” to make “me.” And every time I walk by water, I can see the “we” is still with me. I don’t think about the clothes I pull out. It’s not the clothes, it’s how you represent them.

I ask how he feels he’s representing himself today. “With style, grace, and panache. Most people got the youth, beauty, and some money. I just got style, grace, and panache. And I’ll make them work.”

CC got his beautiful leather hat from last year’s lumberjack finals, in a booth three stalls down from his. He’s wearing an earring cuff fashioned from the hook of a hanger. It glides along the curve of his ear, charms tightly bunched together, giving the impression of a mohawk-like cluster of earrings.

“I’m a wimp,” he says. “I’m scared of needles, so I won’t pierce my ears. This is one of those designs we create to make life what it be in this reality. So I can say, carefully and theoretically: Thank you for making my day, because you make me who I be.”

What is the most important thing you carry with you in your life? All the love and respect that people gave me for free.

Age: 86

Hometown: Mustang, Oklahoma

George is a self-proclaimed axe junkie. I spot him eating ice cream in the front row of the stands. He’s been coming to the World Lumberjack Finals for 20 years. He’s a former farm owner, former helicopter pilot in Vietnam.

“I was in the Cobra Platoon 114,” he says, pointing to the cobra pin fastened to the center of his hat. “I flew a UH-1B model gunship in 1964.”

His typical style: I like to just wear a pair of coveralls. That’s what a lot of mechanics wear. I’m a mechanical engineer. I don’t have a personal style, but I like to wear the color blue.