How to Dress for the Campo

Nicaraguans don't wear any kind of traditional clothing like many other Latin American cultures do. Instead, the distinctive style of dress that you find in the Nicaraguan campo comes directly from American used-clothes warehouses. When your local Value Village or Salvation Army can no longer sell certain items, they package them up into enormous, 60-pound "pacas," and ship them off to Nicaragua, where people buy individual pieces of clothing for around 50 cents.

This system of recycled clothes has drastically influenced the culture of style in every corner of Nicaragua. The hottest fashion around, worn by old women, little boys, and everyone in between, is a bright-colored t-shirt from Hollister, Abercrombie, or Aeropostale. These brands are so cool, in fact, that people sometimes sew their logos onto other items of clothing, or reinvent them with creative twists like "Hollixer" or "Aberpostale."

If you want to blend in in the Nicaraguan campo, here are a few fashion tips that you must follow.

1. Hollister goes well with horses.

2. Cowboy hats, leather boots, and big belt buckles are as Nicaraguan as traditional dancing.

3. If you don't like the wide brim, go for a baseball cap instead.

4. Undershirts are ideal get-up for street-lounging.

5. Everyone has to pick sides. Who will you choose?

6. Accessorizing your school uniform is simple with bright friendship bracelets and a trucker cap.

7. Respect the professional polo.

8. Long pencil skirts are perfect for every occasion - they bend with you!

9. Who needs undershirts? A sheer shirt is a sure shirt!

10. The higher the heel, the better.

11. Long hair is beautiful. Long hair in an elaborate braid is even more beautiful.

12. Plastic hair claws are WAY back in style. 

13. The head is an easel. Hair cuts are an art.

14. T-shirts with English words are always cool - it doesn't matter what they say!