| WHO FEARS A BLACK HAT? |
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It was a dark, stormy night and the rain was pouring down like sheets of frosted glass. It was the kind of night where you didn't go outside unless your life depended on it.
It was also the kind of night the criminal element reveled in. I could see the beams of flashlights dancing inside the bank windows. I knew the hit was just about finished. Then out he came, standing tall like he owned the place, Switchblade Schneider, the roughest gangster in town, dressed in a pin striped suit and with an immaculate black fedora keeping the rain off his scarred face. Sounds like something from an old detective novel, right? Or maybe an episode of "The Untouchables" TV series. The thing is, most people tend to associate the fedora, especially those by John B. Stetson, with old gangster movies or detective stories. This is not surprising since the Stetson Temple, for example, one of the company's classic men's dress hats, was seen in just about every major motion picture in Hollywood's golden age of cinema. John B. Stetson did for hats what Henry Ford did for automobiles. His company, started in the late 1800's, mechanized the industry and became the largest hat manufacturer in the world, and the fedora quickly rose to be one of their most popular hats. The word "Fedora" comes from the title of a 19th century play in which the heroine wears that style hat. Any hat which resembles that soft felt style is usually referred to as a fedora, even those made of twill, straw or leather. While generally worn by men, ladies versions of the fedora actually do exist. The hats can be found in, pretty much, any color these days, but the most popular colors remain the black, grey and brown hats seen in classic Hollywood movies where the actors portrayed gangsters, reporters and tough cops in trench coats. Even Indiana Jones wears a beaver fur felt fedora such as released in the limited edition collectors case from Lucasfilm. Stetson's hat company, though going through a few name changes over the decades, has been in business for over 130 years. His entrepreneurial drive created one of the finest hat manufacturers of the modern age and the world took notice. The Stetson fedora went beyond keeping the sun and rain off the wearer's face and became a must have fashion icon.             |
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