The sign went up in mid-May announcing what those savvy to the fashion world understood.
The letters posted outside Country Saddlery in Reddington spelled out the message “It’s official. It’s straw hat season.”
Not being as hip to fashion statements as Cindy Crawford, Calvin Klein or Coco Chanel, I thought it was officially baseball cap season. But hold onto your hats. While not as strictly observed as it once was, the hat police do have rules beyond common sense about when it is proper to wear straw.
Unlike horses and cattle, who might prefer to bed down on it, humans are supposed to be discerning about when to interact with straw by showing off lighter weight chapeaux.
Owner Julie Benter, who is mostly oriented to cowboy straw hats, wore a pleasing wide-brimmed straw hat in her shop recently, one that would sufficiently protect her from intense sunlight or even overhead lighting. However, straw hat history runs deep and depending on the locale may be as ubiquitous in summer as watermelon.
Some researchers suggest such hats made from various fibers, like braided hemp, raffia and more, date to the 15th century.
Strictly speaking, over the decades, straw hats in the United States were encouraged as an article of clothing between Memorial Day and Labor Day, mirroring the oft-stated adage about that being the appropriate calendar period to wear white in women’s shoes.
“I’m not sure people even wear white shoes anymore,” Benter said.
Not so much unless they are manufactured by Converse.
I look lousy in all hats, but living in Wyoming and attending hundreds of rodeos, I needed a cowboy hat. I went through three of them. The first one was a cheapo-cheapo productions straw model. The second was an upgrade but still not so sturdy and also straw. Finally, I moved on to felt, but on a 95-degree day in the sun, I nearly melted down.
Years ago, male baseball fans flocked to ballparks in straw boaters, spiffy and rakish in style. Nobody looked better in a boater than Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack. They could push straw to Sept. 15.
Friends didn’t let friends wear straw later than that. Those who violated the precept might be teased mercilessly or have their hats forcibly removed and wrecked.
In 1922, a rebellion erupted in New York City. A group of rakish teens went on the prowl Sept. 13 and began ripping straw hats off of factory workers. When they tried the same stunt with dock workers, those men hit back and a brawl began that was subsequently called Straw Hat Riot. It took three days for police to calm things.
Activity is more peaceful at Country Saddlery. Julie’s parents opened the shop in 1962, and it has been in the family since. Straw hats shipped in for the season are piled in neat stacks on shelves.
Benter makes the call on straw hat season each year judging by atmospheric conditions.
“When it gets to be warm,” she said.
Much of Benter’s inventory consists of cowboy hats for rodeo riders. While rough-stock competitors may eschew straw hats, ropers, barrel racers and those whose bodies might not be tossed inside-out trying to stay aboard an irritated animals embrace them.
Straw hats sell at Country Saddlery for anywhere between $16.98 to $149.98. Hundreds get sold there.
“Some buy a new one every season,” Benter said. “Someone like me can get three years out of a hat. It’s not getting sun-faded.”
Justin Benter, 40, Julie’s son, just obtained a new hat for the first time in 10 years. He takes good care of his tops and makes them last. The one before that lasted about a decade, as well.
“I like it to be American made,” he said. “I like the crispness (in the brim). I want it to last a long time.”
Those folks may be ranchers or rodeo people, but straw hats decorated with red ribbons and labeled with rodeo patches might attract the spectator. The “western look” is popular.
“It’s American heritage,” Benter said. “When times get tough, people like to get back to their roots.”
Style changes over time, too, brims being wider, at 5 inches, these days, and the current tendency is to look for taller crowns.
Although Benter has a framed picture of John Wayne hanging in the shop, she can’t recall him ever wearing straw in his cowboy movies. But people are urged to put the hat on their head in Wayne style.
“Handle it from the crown and pull it down in front,” she said. “It should be snug. It should be 1 or 2 inches above your eyeballs.”
Country Saddlery carries hats from Stetson, Resistol, Charley 1 Horse, American Hat Company and Rodeo King Hats. Julie said all of them come from Texas.
There is a fair chance if a cowboy purchaser saw a foreign point of origin on his straw hat, we might well witness Straw Hat Riot of 2021.