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The first time you walk into a Texas dance hall on a Friday night, the dress code hits you before the music does. Nobody is in costume. Nobody is trying too hard. And yet everyone somehow looks right. If you have a two-step night coming up and you are staring at your closet, here is what actually works on a wooden floor in Texas. Start with the shirt, but keep it simple A two-step is a moving dance. You will be turning, your arms will be up, and after four songs you will be warm. That rules out anything stiff, anything you have to keep adjusting, and anything you would be sad to sweat in. A soft cotton tee is the honest answer. Ring-spun cotton breathes, moves with you, and looks better the more you wear it. Cream, black and navy all read well under warm dance hall lighting, and they photograph better than bright colors when someone inevitably pulls out a phone. Our Texas Two-Step Shirt was drawn with exactly this night in mind, but any well-cut Texas tee does the job. Boots mat...

Buying for a Texan is easy to get wrong. The state is on so much merchandise that most of it has stopped meaning anything, and the person you are shopping for can spot a gas station souvenir from across the room. What works is something specific. A place they know, a season they wait for, a habit they have. Here are twelve gifts that pass that test, sorted by budget. Under 30 dollars 1. A shirt about their part of Texas. Not the state outline. The thing they actually love about it. If they drive farm roads with the windows down, the Backroads wildflower tee lands better than anything with a longhorn on it. 2. Bluebonnet seed for their yard. Sown in the fall, it comes up in March. A gift that shows up again every spring is hard to beat. 3. Local hot sauce or salsa from a maker they have not tried. There are hundreds of small Texas producers. Skip the ones already on grocery shelves. 4. A tin of good coffee from a Texas roaster. Pairs well...

For about three weeks every spring, the shoulders of Texas highways turn blue, and half the state pulls over to sit in a field. Bluebonnet season is short, it is unpredictable, and it is one of the few traditions that everyone here takes part in without being asked. Here is what to know about it, and what to wear if you are the one taking the photos. When bluebonnets actually bloom Peak bloom usually lands between late March and mid-April, though it moves around a lot. South Texas goes first, Central Texas follows a week or two later, and North Texas brings up the rear. The size of the bloom depends almost entirely on rainfall the previous autumn. A wet October gives you a spectacular April. A dry one gives you a thin, patchy year, and no amount of spring rain fixes it after the fact. This is why bluebonnet years are talked about the way other places talk about vintages. Where to go Ennis holds the official Texas Bluebonnet Trail and is designated the state Bluebonnet City. Burne...