Yee haw! A History of the Cowboy Hat
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Iconic symbol of the Old West, essential attribute of the hard working cowboy, emblematic of America around the world, the cowboy hat is one of the most famous pieces of headgear today. From a simple work item to protect the outdoor worker from the sun to a symbol of country pride, the cowboy hat has had a long journey, inspired by mediterranean hats, mexican sombreros, southern slouch hats, before being revolutionized by John Stetson and his Boss of the Plains.
Version française : • Le Far West: l'histoir...
The hat I wear in this video comes from Maverick Western Wear in Fort Worth, Texas. maverickwester...
Title sequence designed by Alexandre Mahler
am.design@live.com
This video was done for entertainment and educational purposes. No copyright infringement of any sort was intended.
John B. Stetson was my Great Great Grandfather. I’m very proud to be his descendant. He was a good and generous man.
Nice! A lineage to be proud of.
Wow!
I've been through Deland,FL many times. The university he built there is a beauty to behold.
That's wonderful.
Growing up in Philly, we often played against the Stetson school. ( Now a charter school, but I think it was a junior high when we played in the 70's)
If I'm not mistaken, the giant building in which the Stetson hats were manufactured is still standing--although, with all the development in the city, it could have been demolished in recent years.
Jimmy, I recently found him in my family tree as well. So, Howdy Cousin!
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a Frenchman attempt an American West accent. I love these videos - keep them coming!
Actually his mother is American...
I live in central Mexico. I wear a cowboy hat every day.
Never wore anything other than a baseball cap till I moved to California. It's a dry heat, but so is an oven, and the sun just feels inescapable. Bought a cowboy/outback hat and have loved it ever since. As silly as they can look, the cowboy hat is a wonderfully practical thing, and a great piece of Americana. Great video!
I wore these caps for a long time, but when working, hiking, or when it's really hot, they get soaked like crazy. I improvised a turban on a hike and it was a difference like night and day! Later, I purchased a straw hat. It's the best for hot days. No question.
I grew up wearing a cowboy hat in California, all my family did, because we'd be out hunting or fishing, and riding horses tending our cattle ranches. Sun or rain it's useful. A nice clean one for in town.
As a Texan, I've taken it even one step further; an enormous straw sombrero. They allow the top of the head to breathe through good ventilation and provide shade to face, neck, and shoulders, as well as the upper chest and back. Most have an adjustable chin strap, which is important with such a large brimmed hat on windy days. You just have to accept the fact that you are 'that guy' now. You know, that guy who wears a sombrero.😅
Sorry Buddy... doesn't look silly to this Canadian cowboy
Actually, someone asked me once if I was a cowboy. I said "Well... i have owned cows and horses."
Australia has a couple of companies that make excellent hats of all shapes and sizes.
I have an Akubra.
don't tell albo.
I've seen highway construction crews with a hard hat imitations of cowboy hat
Throughout most of the year 2011 I was living in Madera, CA (county & city just north of Fresno County & City.) Being an area located in California's central agricultural "bowl," I ended up working part-time as a ranch-hand. Being that I was, more or less, considered a "city boy," I was often given grief, by the local population, of my country/farm/ranch-working inexperience. Eventually though, the man I did the most work for would acknowledge my eventual acquired knowledge and ability to work as a proficient ranch-hand by gifting me with a brand-new Stetson, white-straw, "cowboy" hat.
In rodeos up here in northern Michigan, few would wear an expensive Stetson in the “ring”, but would wear a Resistol cowboy hat as they cost less and can take a lot of punishment.
That map at the beginning is inaccurate: Illinois,Wisconsin, Minnesota mostly unlikely. Nevada and West Coast states do wear cowboy hats in rural areas in their eastern ranch country and are excluded.
Un régal, une fois de plus ! C'est vrai que ce couvre-chef est iconique. A tel point d'ailleurs que, quand des amies texanes de mon épouse sont venues nous voir en France il y a deux ans et qu'elles m'ont demandé ce qu'elles pouvaient m'apporter qui me ferait plaisir, la réponse a été immédiate : grand fan de westerns devant l'éternel (mais les vieux, hein, ceux de John Ford, Howard Hawks, Henry Hathaway ou Anthony Mann, ou ceux de Sergio Leone, pas ceux d'aujourd'hui), je rêvais d'un vrai boss of the plains. Ça les a un peu étonné, mais elles m'en ont quand même apporté un, un magnifique chapeau (de chez Stetson, bien sûr) superbement emballé dans son carton enrubanné à l'ancienne et agrémenté d'une majestueuse plume d'aigle... Je n'imaginais pas à quel point ce genre de chapeau pouvait être grand et surtout rigide par rapport aux fedoras en feutre que je porte régulièrement en hiver. Pour tout dire, ce genre de chapeau est tellement marqué qu'il est quasiment impossible à porter en Europe, mais quelle splendeur !
Et merci aussi d'avoir souligné que le vrai chapeau qui a fait la conquête de l'ouest, c'est surtout le melon même s'il est beaucoup moins majestueux.... Mais franchement, vous imaginez John Wayne, Gary Cooper ou Clint Eastwood défourailler avec un melon sur la tête ? 😂
Well, confederates used cowboy hats probably because they (or their government) couldn't afford kepis for everyone.
It was less of the price of the kepi and more of the practicality of the slouch hat. This is why you can find pictures of wealthy officers forgoing the kepi
@@issintf925 that's true enough. Though I've also heard that pre-war fashion and a will to appear closer to the men by emulating their style played a factor.
I've lived in Texas and Oklahoma most of my life. I don't use them as a fashion statement, but a straw cowboy had is very useful in the hot sun. A canvas one is good for the rain. For cold rainy days, you can wear a bandana under it.
These hats are big deal in country Australia. Men, small children and their mothers all sport them.
Would like to hear your take on the military slouch hat made most famous by the ANZACs.
IT FINALLY CAME I CAN QUIT BOTHERING YOU ABOUT IT! Another excellent video as always, can't wait to see what else is in store for us.
Hahaha, I hope it was worth the wait. I told you I was going to make one ;)
I'm really enjoying working through your videos. Well made, informative and also made me buy a flat cap.
Spend a few hours out on a tractor without a cab and the sun will beat you up. A ball cap just doesn’t cut it. When I’m working my property I have a cowboy hat on.
The Stetson is like the less-formal descendant of the Spanish Cordobes hat as the baseball cap is the casual child of the flat cap.
I never thought I would find learning about hats so interesting and fun.
OMG! He's wearing a Malcolm Reynolds jacket in his western costume! Nicely done sir!
In the US Army, Cavalry units (either ground or air) wear black Stetsons for formal and ceremonial events. As made popular to the world in the movie "Apocalypse Now" with the character LTC "Bill" Kilgore of the Air Cav. As reference to the image of a the cowboy giving water to his horse with his hat, when a Cav Trooper earns his spurs either in combat or a spur ride (an initiation event for new troopers), a soldier may wear a Stetson but after it is broken in. Story goes that when the rider would give water to a horse with his hat, the dyes in the fabric would give the horse (pardon my crudeness) the shits. So they would have to break in their hats with water to get ride of the dye. In the US Cav, a new trooper breaks in his Stetson with a concoction of booze, oil, sand, tabasco, or whatever imaginative ingredients their Spur Holder (one who earned their spurs and their senior) and is expected to drink it down.
Interesting
My unit in Afghanistan, 2012, had some cav members and yes, they brought their cav hats with them.
In US film culture, the "black hat" is used to signal who is the "bad guy."
Hey Ho! A fine piece, BUT you left out completely, the Hardee Hat of the US civil war. Returning soldiers wore them as civilians and joined the Western expansion. The cowboy hat is a direct descendent of the Hardee hat. I own three reproductions of them, each is creased and folded slightly differently . Even people with no hat knowledge first think they are cowboy hats, then look again, and HAVE to ask about it. Fun fact two; every US western state has a 'regional style' of cow boy hat; you can tell the US state the wearer is from, by the 'set' of the hat.
I just bought a Gus Stetson 6x and was feeling a bit disengenuous because I’m not a cowboy. I love our country and this hat is a symbol of American values and now I will wear it with pride
Yes sir, wear it and wear it good.
A symbol of American values? Dude, you watch too many Westerns
You don't have to be a cowboy to wear the hat. Wear it with pride. It's a classic.
I have 6 of them, and a floppy Australian Outback hat to wear with shorts.
I've been waiting for you to do an episode on the cowboy hat. Thank you!
Someone's been asking for one for months (and I've been hoping they believed me when I said it was coming), was that you?
I did request it once. I'm glad you made an episode on it and I look forward to your future ones.
Moi aussi j'avais demandé deux fois!! Merci beaucoup !!
P.S.: les chapeaux sont tous des feutre ou aussi en cuir ?
I don't know what brought me here, but I'm glad I am
A very practical hat to keep the rain and sun off, around town, I wear a flat cap, but have a cowboy for outdoors hillwalking, which get some looks in southern EWngland
I disagree whilst the Cowboy hat is associated as a stereotypical U.S hat. For us who have grown up in the Commonwealth countries of the 1950s to 1960s, the Bush hat, a Slouch derivative with or without the pugree. This is very much associated with the Commonwealth countries including ANZACs, Gurkhas, South African, former Rhodesian and Indian regiments and the Canadian Mounties. Civilians will wear it usually with the whole brim down, these hats being manufactured by the Aussie company Akubra and are making a comeback in the Commonwealth countries.
Is there any video on my favourite - namely Boer/Afrikaaner Bush/Safari Hat
As a Texan, PLEASE never use that very bad accent again. You do not have to impress us. Your normal voice is fine.
The day before this video dropped saw one in a fairly fancy restaurant in Oregon, (North West USA), they're everywhere
In southeastern Brazil the caipira population (which would be equivalent to the hillbillies in the US) had their own traditional hat which had a wide brim which was the "tropeiro hat" and the straw hat (that spread throughout the rest of the country, becoming traditional mainly on the Party of St John), however, with the industrialization of the big cities, the population practicing the rural exodus ended up forgetting their cultural roots, and the cowboy hat replaced their old clothing, becoming too western, and spread it to the rest of the country, as beautiful as it is, it is sad to see how it has replaced many cultural garments around the world, especially in places that had great contact with American culture.
For Mexicans that's a norteño hat. A hat used in the north of México where the sun is not so strong all year round. It is more practical when working with animals because is lighter and easier to keep an eye all around. 😊
Badges of the Office.
Federal Marshal. Sheriff. Deputy. Police.
Don't forget the influence 1980s movie "Urban Cowboy" had on western wear. The cowboy craze didn't last long, and for years afterward I could buy nearly new hats and boots at resale shops.
Gallon, tressage, galon comme le ruban brodé utilisé dans le textile ?
C'est étymologiquement très intéressant ça.
Chapeau !
To me the cowboy hat screams Mexican, since those are the only people who wear them in the Chicagoland area
Vos vidéos sont toujours très instructives et drôles.
J’aimerait bien connaître l’histoire du tam écossais...
I would love if you cover the Vietnamese non la or something similar like the Japanese kasa. I wear non la when doing yard work or mowing the lawn.
It's planned!
Where does a broad brimmed Fedora end and where does a cowboy hat begin?
In all over Latin America these are popular
Cool hat, but I'll stick with my tricorn (okay, says the one who is wearing a Brodie Mk2 in his profile picture).
Yay! New upload :D
I've heard people describe Akubra as the "Stetson of Australia." This is apparently quite true. According to one source Akubra has had the license to manufacture Stetsons" in Australia since the 1970s.
Ther could be an episode in the story of Australian hats
And it should be noted that the Slouch Hat pinned on one side is iconic to the Australian Army for over 100 years.
Always tip your hat with your left hand so you can still shake hands with your right hand.
Not America, it's 'Merica..we damn proud of "our hat". 🤠
Everyone thinks of it as an American hat except for the Mexicans and Canadians who wear one every day!
Hollywood is to blame
Could you do the boonie cap?
Like Lucky Luke, but with more class.
And better luck!
You have earned my subscription, Sir.
Honestly, one of the best videos going over the hat’s history! Showing how it was the combination of multiple items and cultures bumping into one another to form something truly unique!
Great video. I have always loved the cowboy hat and I sport one while mowing my yard. I’m in a small town in Tennessee which has a hat maker. I can’t afford one of those.
Bought a fawn colored open road Stetson , and had it shaped like a western style hat, and it's perfect. I don't think I look particularly good in a hat, but I have gotten compliments on it.
I have a black felt Bailey's that I wear mostly in the coldest or snowiest weather. In the sunnier time of the year I have a straw hat that gets the most use. I wear glasses and have an abysmal time trying to find sunglass clip ons or covers, so my straw hat is a lifesaver.
im personally trying to bring back the tricorne!
I always suspected that the tricorn evolved into the cowboy.
Great research. Great delivery, entertaining and educational. Really enjoying your work. Mucking Refarkable I say ! Cheers from Australia.
I grew up on a cattle ranch in central Washington state in the 1950s and 60s. My first jobs were in the saddle, herding cattle, riding fence (repairing fences) and so on. I wore a cowboy hat, and frankly they were so common we didn’t even call them “cowboy” hats. They were just called “hats.” Any other kind of hat, a pork pie hat, a fedora, a beanie or (shudder) a beret wad a descriptive name (I.e. pork pie, fedora, newsboy, etc.). I only knew of a few people who had Stetson hats. Most people I knew got their hats from the feed store or J.C. Penney’s. Our small town didn’t have a real haberdasher, but the local clothing store sold Stetsons and Stetsons were too expensive for most of us to buy.
These days I mostly wear flat caps. I’m partial to Harris tweed or linen flat caps. Cowboy hats take up too much room.
Honestly, you could've extended the cowboy hat states out to Nevada, if not California, too. Hell, California is one of the biggest agricultural centers of the United States. Plenty of cowboy hat wearin' ranchers out here. Also, the first vaqueros were not wandering cowboys. They were indigenous slaves of the Spanish, who tended the Spaniard's cattle. A lot of cowboy clothing/style comes from them. The Spanish may have introduced hats, but indigenous Mexican people made the hats their own. Where did you get your info?
Do you have delivered a first class presentation. From a one time Arizona cowboy.
Ooooooo.................. Saying the cowboy hat is the official hat of the USA is Fighting words for the baseball hats purest. I would say it is a fair fight between the two.
Great video! Very glad you pointed out the wide brimmed slouch hats of the American Civil War. I recently got my first bowler, and was reading about how it is supposedly the "real" cowboy hat, that the Boss of the Plains did not become widespread until near the end of the era of the Old West... but when I looked up vintage photographs of real people from that era, most of them are wearing some variation of a wide brimmed felt hat, not a bowler or a sombrero. So it seems to me that, at least in the field, something that approximated the look of a cowboy hat was indeed in general use. My theory is that these hats are indeed slouch hats left over from the Civil War. What are your thoughts? Maybe you could do a video on the slouch hat, and show us how it differs from what eventually became the cowboy hat that is recognized today.
Can you make a video about the hats used by Brazilian Cangaceiros? Theres two main models i know, a bigger one with flaps pinned in the front and back and a smaller rounded one (that is still very common in brazilian northwest). I heard about the influences of jewish quipá on the hats, like in the format of the smaller one and six pointed stars (a common symbol used on them)... But I realy dont know if this infuences are real and know nothing about its history. It will be realy cool to learn about that.
Ref: your Texas drawl. To paraphrase Samuel Clements. You got the words but you ain't quite got the tune. When I was a kid if someone was described as wearing a hat, the descriptive "cowboy" was a given.
In Uruguay and Argentina, the "Gauchos" use a variety of the "sombrero" that spanish settler used to wear (See paiting shown at 2:21), this kind of hats is still used to this day by people of this two countries (as well at the south of Brasil and some parts of Chile) as part of they culture.
It is also still the dress uniform cover (mil speak for hat!) of US armored and air cavalry regiments. Think of Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now.
The best style for working hard is a Vaquero style brim and pinch made of 100% Mexican palm
Wow! You speak English in an American accent...Texas? Very good
My favorite use of this hat is in the early William S. Hart silent film, Hell's HInges, where his character, Blaze Trace, a prototypical western gunfighter and all-round tough hombre, who follows no flag, comes to a wild western town, wearing a black Stetson. He falls for the minister's sister, starts fighting for civilization and good behavior (but still taking the law into his own hands, naturally) and all of a sudden--with no explanation--his Stetson is white. This may be where the trope of 'black hat' and 'white hat' originated in the western genre. We are given to understand that his hat somehow sensed Blaze's change of character, and accordingly changed hue, like a mood ring. :)
Ironically the Soviet Army issued a similar looking Hat during their Afghanistan War
You should take a look at the "chupalla"; the traditional low-crown-wide-brimmed hat of the Chilean "Huaso".
If Beyonce saw me wearing my Indy fedora in 2015, she would have joined the mainstream crowd who belittled me. Look at her now.
Calgary Alberta Canada is an interesting case of American influence. Many of the original ranchers and farmers who settled Alberta came from the US instead of coming from eastern Canada. Thus American cultural norms and institutions are more prominent there than in other parts of Canada. This includes the use of Stetsons both culturally and officially. For example a white straw Stetson with a thin red band has become an official symbol of Calgary and features on the city flag. Calgary Police officers are authorized to wear Black Stetsons during the summer and at sporting events.
The straw gambler is the best, it just needs the liner size band they got on the SundayAfternoons hats. Also a fan to dismember the victim. You can buy some absolutely trash garbage fans..that would help 500% as seen on tv. Because straw is utimately laminated carbon fiber, but you couldn't make carbon fiber that intricate, or it would blow away. The baseball refinement is just that, a hat that won't blow away, but its' still not straw. All those fine materials in the Italian hats poisons us with fashion.
I had a Charro in South Texas tell me you could know what part of Mexico a vaqeur was from by the style of his cowboy hat. I don't know if that is true. But the big Sombrero is mostly seen as a costume item. The Charros I know usually wear straw stetson styles or ball caps.
That was a really interesting video! I thought there was more to the design of it--i.e. the curved up sides. Thought it was more for directing rain rather than it just falling off the brim wherever. Thanks Again. I love the Stetson!
3:16 - Bowler looks like the hat that Marty McFly’s great great grandfather gave him in Back to the Future Part III.
Get caught in the Arizona desert and you'll be grateful for a broad-brimmed hat. You'll want as much shade as you can get.
as usual, a superb combination of facts and critique. keep these videos coming, please. (one suggestion: when discussing what you call the "lemon squeezer," you might mention the "campaign hat," and include the iconic Smokey Bear.)
Excellent and informative video! Thank you
America is the whole continent from the north tip of Canada to the last part of earth in Ushuaia. The Europes seem to forget this fact, I wonder what the Africas and the Asias would say of the Americas
Je suis une tres grande fan de chapeau ( a tel point que je commence a en creer, je travaille sur mon premier fedora la)donc je me regale avec ces videos :) Elles sont vraiment completes, avec plein d'infos super :)
I now love cowboy hats
I wear a 'cowboy' hat often, and especially when I am out in the sun, with a white straw hat, which is great for fishing, and keeping the sun off your face and neck, and in formal occasions with a black felt hat.
Randomly, Stetson University’s mascot are the Hatters
Video idea: the history of the European student caps, for example the caps still worn by German Studentenverbindungen.
Love your videos!
Yeeeeee haw
That border needs to push further to the left. It's very common on the West Coast. Most of it is very rural, and it's common to see cowboy hats
i’m a mexican that moved to Michigan and wear a cowboy hat hat everyday. and people make weird faces at me lol😂
I think you should devote equal time to the rancher hat. the Stetson Open Road . It's the LBJ hat. I have a collection of them and wear them on the street.
The Tilley hat is close to the cowboy in shape and function, though much more recently invented.
You do a country accent better than Nicolas Cage at least. Your channel is awesome! Thank you.
Oh boy this is good history Im from Africa so have no connection with most of what you mention but enjoy the walk into a deep and interesting part of life but do a boer war hat if possible those things looked grim
Cow - The adult female od cattle. Boy- A male child. Cowboy or sheboy.
as a civilian I have a lot of pride in the US flag but I don't know if I can wear those kind of clothes or if it means some sort of disrespect. so can civies wear them ?
or if Elon Musk wants to awkwardly try to connect with the common man in a photo op at the southern US border by wearing one for the first time ever
Your channel is underappreciated, but I love it, so I tip my hat to you, sir!
Sometimes cowboy hats make guys look good in it. (or and girls)
Have you done the Australian Akubra?
Is there fundamentally any major difference between a wide brimmed fedora and a open crowned cowboy had if you crease it the same way?
I enjoyed your video sir and just wanted to say thank you
Did you know that in the early 70s the only country that made stetsons was Wales.
Enjoy your channel very much !
Please see can you improve audio clarity
Very interesting and funny with you South accent. I have a true Stetson, i like wearing it in rainy weather. Naturally it gives style.