HAT FACT…
‘Cowboy hats’ come in a variety of sizes, shapes, colours and designs.
People often wonder where the name ‘ten gallon hat’ comes from. Early Stetson company adverts spoke of the close weave of the hot material making them waterproof enough to use as a bucket. Print adverts reportedly showed a cowboy using his Stetson hat to offer his horse a drink of water. Therefore, people have since assumed that a ‘ten gallon’ hat would hold 10 gallons of water. The reality is that the largest hats from the Stetson Company hold about 3 quarts (3L) rather than the 40L capacity assumed for a 10 gallon hat!
The other theory for the name comes from a mistranslation of
the Spanish word "galón", or galloon, which is a type of braiding
found on Mexican sombreros. A large sombrero might measure 10 galloons.
Whatever the origin or style, a well-designed cowboy hat can make a man 'Boss of the Plains'.
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HAT FACT...
Baron Hats have designed a custom hat for Bob Dylan. In 2004 the hat was worn for the cover shoot of a Newsweek feature. Called the 'Outlaw Blues', the hat is described on Baron's website.
'Bob Dylan wanted something special. It had to have the look of the West, the feeling of American Legend, yet also have a subtle taste of the 21st Century. And of course, it had to shout both the spirit of independence and the iconoclastic idiosyncrasy of the great modern “outlaw” himself, what with his boots firmly entrenched in both the grandeur of the past and the wonder of the future. Thus, the “Outlaw Blues” was born, inspired by the custom hat we made for him (and which he wears on the cover of a recent “Newsweek”), and just recently was seen wearing on his CBS "Sixty Minutes" profile.
As is the original, the “Outlaw Blues” is made of specially dyed “Silver Belly” 100% Fur Felt, with a lanky “moonshiner” styled and shaped crown, and wide brim, which we then sidewindered on both sides in a "West Texas" style fender fold.'
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HAT FACT...
The Stetson. A symbol of white authority, or representative of freedom to African Americans?
It is interesting to consider the symbolism and history of the Stetson hat in relation to blues and soul music.
Originally a symbol of power for white authority in America, they were worn by lawmen and southern land owners. However, in his autobiography Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong talked about how Stetsons were coveted by black singers.
They became a dual symbol of power and freedom. Many blues and soul singers have worn Stetsons. Otis Rush, Solomon Burke, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown to name a few.
Bob Dylan sang 'Stack A Lee' on his World Gone Wrong album. it is an old blues song with a murder over the loss of a John B. Stetson Hat. The symbolism of the Stetson and the interesting background to 'Stagger Lee' were discussed by James P. Hauser who said:
'Bob Dylan's extraordinary version of the song, based on an obscure 1927 recording by Frank Hutchison titled "Stackalee", echoes that sentiment as, in a wailing voice, he repeatedly lays the blame for all the trouble on "that John B. Stetson hat". But his recording specifically identifies the hatmaker's full name, as if to say that there is more to the story, that the cause was something more than just the hat itself. What Dylan might be saying is that the trouble was all about the same thing that the Stetson hat is all about.'
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