Fashion backwater no longer! Urban Hicks visited with our country cousins to find the next big thing before catwalk culture beats us to the punch.

Let's admit it. Calvin Klein's inspiration for his sparse, tailored designs could very well have been the Amish. Yes, the Amish. Those paragons of the simple life. Who knew that a fashion empire could be built around the clothing of a community that still churns its milk by hand?
Although not exactly one of the Amish, we found our first fashion paragon in the guise of Stanley Myers - today's designated hick hunk. Like the Amish, Stanley is all about function when it comes to clothing. "Ah need tah scramble after this little critter here," he says, nodding toward the squealing porcine juvenile that was struggling in his mud-encrusted grasp."Tah do that, ah need clothes that ah don't mind getting grimy."

Well, if that isn't a declaration worthy of the Marlborough Man, we don't know what is. Urban Hicks rests its case.