Iconic Hats - The Cowboy Hat

[One article in a series on Iconic Hat Styles]

Although associated with the American West. arguably the cowboy hat is not an American creation. There is no doubt that hats with big brims and large crowns had been popular in Mexico, coming to Mexico from Spain, well before "the American West was won." Historians trace the origins in Spain to the European invasions by the very accomplished horsemen from Mongolia. Nevertheless, like all hat styles, modifications by such notables as John B. Stetson, did bring new iterations on this old theme and what we now know as the cowboy hat became inextricably tied to a place and time.

Early on, the style was picked up by notables like The Texas Rangers, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Annie Oakley, and even George Custer was wearing a Stetson when he met his fate at Little Big Horn. When the movies came along, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, and, of course, John Wayne all became personalities that were inseparable from their hats. Politicians, like Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and currently George W. Bush, are happy to wear their western hats whereby they associate themselves with both their home states and the values of the Old West. The style is forever being tweaked by designers and milliners and often becomes the leading style of the moment for women. Now is such a time.

The American West in both fact and legend was (and to a great extent still is) filled with such hats. John B. Stetson - the hat style and his name have become synonymous - introduced "The Boss of the Plains" and became a multi-millionaire. His story is American legend and resembles a cross between that of real life personality Johnny Appleseed and the fictional protagonists created by Horatio Alger. Stetson's rags beginning, ends with a 1906 death when his factory was turning out four million cowboy hats a year. Here was a hat that suited its surroundings. The big brim and high crown protected the cowboy from the elements--sun, rain, hail, snow, dust, mosquitoes and flies, and low branches. He could carry water in his hat or use it to whip his horse or cow. And, of course, this big handsome hat, in short order became his sartorial piece de resistance when courting the ladies.

Iconic Hats - The Cowboy Hat