Disclaimer: I love all the festivities of the Calgary Stampede, with exception of the horse races and rodeo. My Stampede experience did not include cheering over cruelty. 

I wanted until the last day of the Calgary Stampede to post whatever photos I got from there. It was a lot of fun this year and I enjoyed all the crafts shows, art shows, and farm animal exhibits. I even got to watch some beautiful Clandestine horses all dressed up.

I went there 3 times and I got to see only 5 women in pantyhose. As you see, 3 of them I managed to photograph and the shot without shoes beside saddles is of my own legs in ultra sheer pantyhose.

Candid Photos of Women from Calgary Stampede

I saw this girl actually outside of the Stampede grounds, she was at a shopping mall and she said that she was dressed up for the event. I ran into some salon after her, complimenting her on how nice she looks in her denim outfit. She was very happy to pose for a photo.

Here is a photo of a young woman wearing all black despite the heat. She had a particular clothing style that she didn’t part with regardless of all the gingham shirt and ripped denim shorts hype around her.

This shot was taken of the sales girls at the Stampede, they had some art booth and both of them were happy to show off their cool legwear. As you see, one was wearing cool bi-denier tights (with a small run in them unfortunately) and the other one put on mix & match knee socks. A lot of these sales staff were not even from Calgary, I spoke to several who flew in from Toronto just for the event.

My Own Legs & Calgary Stampede Pedicure

My own legs, of course! If you look closely, I even did a Calgary Stampede pedicure with the CS letters. There are better close up shots of that in an earlier post. I wore 5 den pantyhose and flats just because I knew I’ll be doing a lot of walking and I wanted to be comfortable.

Compression Hosiery on a Calgary Woman

On my last day of the Stampede I saw a mature woman in some really nice shiny tights and I immediately thought to be Wolford Neon 40. My curiosity had no boundaries and I willingly ran into a “miracle” beauty cream sales booth after that lady and had to hang out there a little bit until I could find a moment to ask her, while an awfully rude and pushy Israeli sales person was circling me like a shark.

Finally I couldn’t wait anymore, and since any kind of rudeness seemed to be quite common at that booth, I interrupted another one of those sales sharks who was putting on some cream on that lady in order to ask my important question – “I am so sorry, are those pantyhose you are wearing happen to be Wolford Neon 40? They look expensive.”

That lady confirmed that those are in fact expensive, but those are not Wolford. She pays $30/pair for compression hosiery. I was really surprised actually that compression pantyhose could look so good because somehow I wouldn’t think that something medicinal could be also glamorous.

I had to leave and I couldn’t talk to that nice woman any longer, but I do wish with all my heart that she didn’t in fact proceed and buy anything at that booth. While I was waiting they smeared something under my eye to show “how the miracle cream engaged the muscles and the hyaluronic acid in it smoothes out the skin”, but in fact it was something like glue that started tightening on my skin and I had to wash my face later to get rid of that peeling layer. This is a cut throat industry and the sales staff make no money unless they get you somehow to buy something, regardless of the method used.

… and the Lack of Compression Hosiery

Yesterday I went to a Stampede Breakfast in my community with my neighbour. There was a realtor there at her booth and I got to see her legs, the part showing under the hem of her dress and the start of her cowboy boots. I said that she has hairy legs to my neighour and he had a look and said that her legs are just simply blue. I went to have another look and both of us were right – black unshaved hair and varicose veins together! Why go like this to an event where you are trying to market yourself? She’d look perfectly fine in jeans like the rest of the crowd.

In conclusion here I’d like to say that the whole point of the Stampede wear is to embrace the cowboy lifestyle and dress up like a farm girl. It’s unfair to even expect anyone to think about city clothing like pantyhose and heels when this is the spirit of the event, hence here is the reason for such a few sightings. There is a place and time for everything.