These pants are made for women who buck bales, clear trails

Whenever you try to fit a round body into square pants, something bad is bound to happen. Just ask Sarah Calhoun, a former Outward Bound instructor and trail crew leader who grew so weary of wearing ill-fitting male-oriented work pants that she decided to start her own company. "When your pants don't fit, you can't move as easily," said Calhoun, 30. "You have to put your tool down and keep pulling up your pants." Red Ants Pants, based in White Sulphur Springs, a central Montana community of 900, makes tough, double-knee, double-seat work pants in 70 different sizes. Calhoun's trousers have a cult following among Montana ranchers, scientists in Antarctica, California construction workers and landscapers in the Southwest. Most work clothes have a boxy construction that's geared toward the male physique. But when you're a woman, pulling square-cut pants over your hips often leaves handfuls of loose fabric flapping at the waist. "The cut is just too gaping," Calhoun said. Red Ants Pants are tailored with a lower rise in the front, and higher in the back, eliminating the problem of indecent exposure when you're bent over. A diamond-shaped panel sewn into the crotch provides plenty of room and eliminates binding crisscross seams. They come in one color, chocolate brown, but are offered in both curvy and straight-cut styles...read more