The Cowboy Hat Is Getting a Modern Revamp for Fashion’s City Slickers

A ten-gallon Stetson hat is as integral to the classic cowboy uniform as a pair of shit-kicking boots, steely spurs, and fluttering chaps. But thanks to a new collaboration with multidisciplinary artist and vintage hat collector Tasya van Ree, the maverick style staple is leaving its bucolic roots behind and quickly becoming the headpiece de rigueur for the big city’s fashion set. After all, as her well-curated Instagram will attest, Van Ree’s vintage Stetson—which she picked up at a Los Angeles thrift store a while back—has become something of a calling card for her, a star piece in a personal collection that boasts more than 30 toppers. “I found an old Stetson hat at American Rag years ago, and it’s one of those hats that you can mold. It has a big crown, so you can press down, flatten out, lift it up,” she explains. “I just wore that hat in different ways, and I’m still wearing it five or six years later. Now I just love large, big-rimmed hats. The one I designed with Stetson is even bigger than this one!”

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Photo: Courtesy of Tasya Van Ree / @tasyavanree

It’s true; the stunning, sculptural style she created looms large. “It was designed after the vintage Stetson that I own, but I wanted to make it a little more dramatic, so I widened the brim and then I made the crown higher,” Van Ree explains. Available in black, bone, and graphite, the towering and angular hat commands attention. “I wore the bone version out last night and everyone said, ‘I noticed your hat before I noticed you!’” she says, laughing. “It’s its own piece, its own entity.” After flying down to the Stetson headquarters in Garland, Texas, Van Ree worked with the team there to select fabrics, develop the hat’s design, and photograph the craftwork of the artisans (who still hand-stitch all the toppers) for the collaboration’s accompanying exhibit at New York’s Wallplay gallery. Shooting with film rather than with a digital camera, she was able to also infuse her artwork into the collaboration and the equine influence of her newfound passion, polo and horseback riding, to create something that felt truly personal. As she says, “In everything I do, I really want to bring in all the aspects of my art, whether it’s photography or drawing or painting. I love that this is a true collaboration.”

And to think when Van Ree found her own worn-in Stetson years ago, she wasn’t sure how to style it and even shelved it for a while: “It was the first big hat that I owned and it took a second to get up the nerve to wear it, but now I think it’s just an added accoutrement that completes the whole look. You can wear anything with a great shoe or a great hat.” A fashion rule for cowboys and fashion mavericks alike.