Monday, July 18, 2016

The Kid Crease

July 18, 2016
   I'm always on the lookout for Billy the Kid's distinctive hat style from his only known photo. Almost everyone assumes it's a top hat, but it's really just a haphazardly-pinched-crease on the crown of a modest-brimmed cowboy hat. Today while proofing an article on drought in the Texas Panhandle in the 1880s I came across this cowhand:




Here's the cowboy in context:



XIT Roundup photograph

   Yes, the photo is a little late, probably turn of the century (1900) but I believe this is the style of hat crease the Kid is wearing in this photo:




The Stoved In Style



   Since he tipped his brim up, probably at the suggestion of the photographer, the stoved in crease created the exaggerated angular look to the crown. It looks a tad odd to us today but it was all the go back in the day.

"There are only two kinds of men—the dead and the deadly."
—Helen Rowland

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