It's hard to be both fashionable and heavily armed.

"Your carry gun should be comforting, not comfortable." -Clint Smith

A couple of years back I decided to make a commitment to practicing what I preached and carrying a Serious Pistol all the time. Picking the gun was the easy part: For me, few pistols are as comforting as a full-size Government Model, since I shoot it as well as any other handgun I've ever tried. I went with inside-the-waistband carry, since the flat shape of the 1911 lends itself well to this method of toting, and even a big pistol like the "Guv'mint .45" can be concealed in this manner with nothing but an untucked shirttail.

Thus ended my future as a fashion plate.

Jeans, especially women's jeans, are just not cut with carrying a pistol in mind. Forget low-cut styles; there's just not enough room between crotch and waistband to accomodate the 5" barrel of a full-size 1911. As far as the waistband itself goes, if you allow enough room for your pistol and its Galco Royal Guard holster, then the rest of the jeans are going to sag like the sails of a Sargasso-becalmed schooner. Conversely, if you wear jeans that fit right in the seat and legs, you'll wear a pistol-shaped divot in your kidney by noon.

The belt poses another problem. Every time I go to the mall, I look wistfully at all manner of cute and fashionable belts. None of which, of course, are up to the task of rigidly supporting two-plus pounds of steel on your hip without collapsing or letting the holster slip and slide all over the place. A good leather belt from Milt Sparks or a reinforced nylon instructor's belt, while designed to do just that, is unlikely to draw appreciative comments from your style-conscious friends. (Although if worn with panache, the rigger-type instructor's belt does make a certain outdoorsy, rock-climby, mountain-bikie statement, especially if it's in a color other than black...)

So, you know, I compensate where I can. ("Hey, is that a sharkskin holster?" has become a running gag at work.) Since I can carry openly at the shop, I use the gun itself as an accessory. Y'all gun nuts probably know that one: "Today just felt like a stainless Delta Elite day," or "It's Sunday; of course I wore my pretty blued Colt." Somewhere down this road lies the path to a seriously blingin' Barbecue Gun. Someday, though, when I'm rich and famous, I'm gonna hire somebody to do something about that little jeans fit issue...