Historic Hood River
World Famous For Style and Quality
7-29-2022
Notes
A proper hat made an important statement in this era. This dapper gentleman was ready for a trans-Atlantic cruise, but if you picked up a Stetson at the Paris Fair you could be ready for an evening at the Rialto Theater, too.
L.E.
Interesting. I thought Stetsons were for cowboys. When I was a kid, I can remember the men talking about one of the cowboys. They were a bit derogatory about him, because he would only wear Stetson.
ArthurB
I think the brand became more and more known for one style, until the brand name became a synonym for cowboy hat.
kmb
When did the Paris Fair become the Pair Fair? I seem to recall we may have seen a mis-spelling (or alternate spelling) in an earlier image. Considering men's hats were essentially mandatory back in those days, and hats like shown in the ad above are essentially the same as cowboy hats but with less brim, I can see that Stetson would have been in the non-cowboy market. Now that the non-cowboy market has gone away, I can see why Stetson is really only known as a cowboy hat these days.
Arlen L Sheldrake
and speaking of men's hats being mandatory. I am reminded that at least for me one of the neat exhibits at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland is a dining room chair with a platform with knob under the seat for storing the hat while seated. Strict rules about wearing hats while dining. The knob was to keep the hat from siding off during rough train movements.
LMH
Don't know if the “Pair Fair” has any special meaning, but it could. Just to eliminate one source for research the July 14, 1914, issue of the Glacier carried the weekly ad for the Paris Fair, but the typesetter apparently set the type to read “Pair Fair”. The next weekly Glacier reverted the correct spelling.
ArthurB
I think it's just a typo. Someone was sitting far away from here with a long list of Stetson distributors and their mind wandered.
Norma
On one of our trips west my husband and I stopped at the Stetson Factory Outlet in St. Joseph MO where he bought two hats. One for himself and another for a friend. The friend was so attached to his hat that his family had it buried with him.
nels
It's been 30 yeas but the FFA boys went to the national convention in Kansas City and stopped in St. Joseph to buy their own Stetson hats a tthe factory .