Football game attire 101: PNW style

Awww college football...the time of year that most southerns look forward to all year long.  The focus each week from August to December revolves around what game is on the upcoming Saturday, setting up the tailgate and what time is food/alcohol being served.  Having grown up in the south, I have spent a good part of the fall seasons at football tailgates.  Upon moving to Oregon I assumed/expected football to be similar to tailgating in the SEC.  Well, like much of the theme of my blog, it is not.  Don't get me wrong, tailgating here in Oregon is FUN, just VERY different.

Since my husband is a fundraiser for the University of Oregon, our weekends during the fall revolve around the game. When my husband first accepted the position at UO, one of the first things I did was stock my closet up with as much green and yellow clothing I could find. Including as many cute accessories that I could find at Francesca's . When I arrived to our first football game, I was gleaming from head to toe in the perfect (or so I thought) game day outfit, expecting to find a stream of other woman looking just like me..well was I WRONG.

Football in the south is like church, you dress up in your Sunday best to attend a game.  It is not uncommon on a given Saturday to see hoards of girls in sundresses and boys in blazers and bow ties (cliche I know).  I didn't fully expect to see bow ties and sundresses, but I CERTAINLY did not expect to see the complete opposite.  Now don't get me wrong I am using broad generalizations, and there are SOME people that dress up for football games. BUT, for the most part, they don't.  Let me paint the picture for you, most men AND women wear jersey's to football games. Nothing wrong with it, JUST different than I anticipated.  PNW football supporters DONT wear their colors to support their teams either, but rather ANY thing and EVERYTHING with a team logo.

During our first football season, I refused to wear anything but the school colors to football games. My closet quickly turned into a sea of green and yellow of varying seasonal outfits due to the beginning of rainy season early during football season.  In the south, my closet was full of sundresses of varying shades (mostly crimson- Roll Tide), but I never had to think about having a wide seasonal selection of team attire.

 I will say that I am adapting to the culture a LITTLE bit...I have purchased a few Oregon shirts, and I even have worn shorts (instead of a dress) to football games.  One of the things that I realized about PNWerns and football is that the reasons driving why they don't dress up is not because they don't LOVE the game as much as southerns, but it is simply out of need.  For the most part it RAINS for 90% of all football games, there are typically a handful of days that it would be even weather acceptable to wear a dress and cute sandals to a game (believe me when those days come... I am dressed head to toe in yellow and green). But when that rain starts, it is beyond uncomfortable to sit in a dress for hours on end at a football game (believe me I tried!).  

So I am not hanging up my sundresses and fabulous game day accessories yet...BUT I will need to alter my wardrobe a bit to have a successful football season in the PNW.  So if anyone finds a cute yellow or green rain jacket and rain pants (YES, these are necessary!)...let me know!

Rainy tailgating attire!

Until next time y'all,

Emily