The Eyes (and Hats) of Texas Are Upon Him

Expect beef, a Texan staple; margaritas, not martinis; and mariachis when someone’s celebrating. Look for at least a few stunned-looking drivers with Texas plates, fruitlessly searching for parking until, spirits broken, they one day try out the Metro, Washington’s subway system.

When President-elect George W. Bush and his entourage move to Washington this month, they will bring habits and tastes from one of the most distinct regional cultures left in the country. And while some doubters questioned his Texan-ness during Bush’s campaign, his outgoing nature, informality, and love of Southwestern music are, to many Texans, a true reflection of Texas style.

While Bush is up north, they also hope, he’ll dispel a few myths that should have died with the oil boom. “The Texas hair isn’t what it once was. The makeup isn’t what it once was,” says Washington-born Karen Somer Shalett, an editor at the style-watching Papercity magazine in Houston. “There is a sense of culture and history that many people don’t understand and easily write off.”

The cultural imprint of a new president varies according to the environment from which he springs--and his political persona, says Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas presidential scholar. Jimmy Carter, coming from rural Georgia, seemed novel in the nation’s capital; Ronald Reagan, from California, much less so.

“Under Carter,” says former Washington society columnist Diana McLellan, “there was a great wave of things like peanut soup and peanut pate and catfish--being rustic was a virtue.”

In contrast, she says, the Reagan years reintroduced glamour, power socializing, even gossip. “Suddenly money was more important,” McLellan recalls. “They went out a great deal. Nancy Reagan went out, she did the sort of Georgetown ladies thing. It was part of the pleasure of being a biggie in Washington. They were also very at ease with Washington gossip. They liked it. They shared it. I suppose that was part of the Hollywood culture.”

States themselves change too. Texas, which seemed so exotic during the tenure of Lyndon Johnson, is today a sophisticated mega-economy, in many ways indistinguishable from other large states. Though the state still accounts for just under 50% of the U.S. oil industry, the economy has diversified since the dark days of the mid-1980s oil slump. Today, only about 7% of Texas’ gross state product comes from gas and oil drilling, compared to 20% in 1981.

Houston, still the oil industry capital of the world, also houses a world-class medical center, museums and nationally ranked ballet, symphony and opera companies.

Austin, the college town that immortalized the term “slacker” as a job description, is now a hub of the computer industry, grappling with mushrooming growth and housing shortages that rival San Francisco’s.

Even before he became governor, George W. Bush came from sophisticated roots. Though he spent his early childhood in West Texas, his education at Andover, Yale and Harvard Business School could easily have branded him an outsider back in Texas.

But he possesses traits many Texans identify as their own. “He’s got an expansive personal style,” Buchanan says, “a bit of folksiness, less formality and a bit of a swagger.”

The Bushes’ age, personalities, and teenage children will also affect White House culture, predicts Georgette Mosbacher, a New York businesswoman, socialite and longtime Bush family friend.

“The president-elect is more casual than his father,” she says. “Of course, there is a generational difference in terms of their age when they were in the White House . . . [and] you will see a White House with two daughters who will have their social agenda chronicled . . . . I think you’re going to see a little hipper White House--a little trendier.”

At the same time, she adds, Laura Bush, who shares her mother-in-law’s interest in literacy causes, learned a great deal while her in-laws occupied the White House.

“There are going to be more similarities, I would suggest, than there are going to be differences,” Mosbacher says. “You learn by example. . . . Laura Bush has had a mother-in-law who is one of the most successful first ladies in history. I also think that Laura is a traditional spouse, like Barbara Bush was.”

The Bushes’ extensive family ties mean that many of the Texans arriving in Washington will be relatives, with only a select handful of longtime Austin staffers moving north permanently, Mosbacher says.

“You’re going to see a lot of the Bush brothers and their families,” she says. White House guest lists will be heavy with friends and Texan Republican stalwarts, including the Bass family of Fort Worth, Enron Corp. chief executive Ken Lay, oilman Joe O’Neill and surgeon Charlie Younger.

Once in Washington, the newcomers may struggle with an environment unconducive to the art of driving.

“Texans like their things big--especially their cars, their Suburbans,” editor Shalett says. “But it’s just not practical in D.C. proper. No one can parallel park a Suburban. I think that’s going to be hard for Texans to part with--the modern day horse, I guess.”

Staid and ritualized Washington also has little room for Texan social gestures, such as winks or waves at strangers. In rural Texas, as elsewhere in the Southwest, it’s considered downright rude not to lift a few fingers from your steering wheel when another car passes. A Dallas Morning News story once identified four different types of “the Wave.”

Bush himself has been known to woo reporters with an advanced form of the Wave: a wink plus two index fingers pointed like friendly guns.

“Washington isn’t as warm as Texans are used to,” says Shalett. “There’s a certain judging where you went to school, who you work for--there’s a hierarchy.”

If the newcomers choose to chase away homesick blues with festivity, it’ll likely be more relaxed than many Washingtonians are used to and flavored by the U.S.-Mexico border.

“It would be tequila and beer instead of martinis,” says Tom Becker, a marketing director at the high-end Houston boutique Tootsie’s. And, for special occasions, mariachis.

“In Texas, you can go to any number of well-known Mexican restaurants with mariachi bands. I think there are going to be some Mexican-themed parties in Washington.”

Bush himself doesn’t drink but embraces a Texan predilection for casual entertaining. While governor, Bush favored business attire rather than dinner jackets for formal dinners; at his 1999 swearing in, he hosted a vast picnic that featured 850 pounds of barbecued beef, followed by a more traditional fete replete with roses and gold-colored linens.

Unlike the Bushes, however, some Texans have a strong taste for glitz and will bring it North with them, Becker predicts.

“The Texas woman is always looking for the more glamorous look,” he says. “She wants to make a statement. She does not want to be a wallflower and blend in with everybody else.”

Nevertheless, Texas fashion has been unfairly penalized by the overdressed characters of the TV series “Dallas,” said Mickey Rosmarin, owner of three Tootsies stores.

The state’s reputation for big hair, bigger jewels and gaudy clothing was an easy target, Rosmarin said, but he argued that today it unfairly characterizes the state: “Those looks have subsided to the point of barely there.”

Under the harsh sun of Texas, the chicness of black clothing fades, however. “I still think you see a little more color down here or one extra accessory or a little bit bigger accessory,” he said. “It’s not quiet or subdued Upper Eastside New York.”

And even the term “understated” takes on new meaning in Texas, where society women annually compete for the coveted “best dressed” titles. Dallas fashion designer Michael Faircloth, who is designing Laura Bush’s inaugural outfit, operates his couture salon from within the Lilly Dodson boutique that has consistently set sales records for Escada, the brightly colored, coordinated and often flashy designer line of suits and separates.

Texans’ taste for costume and color also includes a genuine appreciation for the look of the Old West. But if stereotypical Texan looks such as cowboy boots and hats still surface on city streets, they are only one part of the culture.

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Times senior fashion writer Valli Herman-Cohen contributed to this story.