How did a terminal illness spur you to create a classic accessory that never goes out of style? (6 photos)

Mandatory components of the image of a self-respecting cowboy are hat and boots. Not to mention a faithful horse and a good revolver. Maybe it seems that these accessories have always existed in a duet - very already organic and inseparable. But it's not.





The "cow boys" originally wore straw hats. captain's sea hats and even fur products of not the most aesthetic kind. But the case changed everything. More precisely, the man is John Batterson Stetson, who was born in 1830 and became the eighth of a dozen children in the family entrepreneur who made hats. Boy early began to help his father at work. Learned a lot and loved the family case. But the verdict of doctors - tuberculosis put an end to all hopes and John's aspirations. After all, for that time it was a death sentence.



John Batterson Stetson

At 20, death seems unreal. And in such age, it is much more difficult to come to terms with the inevitability than in adulthood or elderly. Parents decided to give the guy the opportunity to see the world, since the days his were numbered. And they sent their son from his native New Jersey to the then the little-studied West, where the climate was drier and warmer. Medics don't guaranteed a cure, but recommended a move, arguing favorable effect of such a climate on a weakened organism.



Settlers of the Wild West

Stetson really felt better, although about full recovery was out of the question. And, being flesh of the flesh of his father, not was able to suppress the entrepreneurial spirit. The point is that immigrants wore the most varied and strange headdresses. Beginning with windswept straw hats and ending with fur and felt hats, which, after the rain, sagged and looked very sad, evoking thoughts of dead raccoons.



Stetson Hat Factory

In the meantime, John built a test piece - a hat made of fur felt, which, by a funny coincidence, he bought a real cowboy.



After living in the West for about 15 years, John moved to Philadelphia, where he opened his own enterprise, choosing for him non-original title of John B. Stetson. And universal all-weather felt hat with the pathos name "Master of the Plains" quickly resonated with people and firmly settled on the tops of the inhabitants of Philadelphia and beyond. However, people simply called the headdress Stetsons.



Cowboy hat with a rounded concave top and wide margins has become an element of the country's cultural code. And subsequently part of the uniform of policemen, foresters, military. And the creator himself, contrary to According to medical forecasts, he lived a solid life even by modern standards and died at the age of 76.