Hat Creases

Choices and decisions, it's all about taste and style.  While I'm certainly not a slave to fashion, I do like my hats, and one of the bigger decisions is which crease to get in a hat.  There are our predominate creases in cowboy hats these days.  The Cattleman, the Pinch Front, the Gambler and the Gus.  Each of them are distinctive.

All of these hats are shantug straw, from the Stetson page.

The Cattleman, probably the most common these days.

The Pinch-Front.  More often seen on a fedora, it was John Wayne's favorite crease

The Gambler.  I don't know why they call it that, but I have at least one hat with a Gambler Crease

The Gus.  An old hat crease, and a cross between the Cattleman and Pinch Front.  It was popularized recently  in the movie Lonesome Dove, worn by Gus McCrae.

So, if you're buying a cowboy hat, you have to choose a crease.  I have several and today the shipping company delivered another one, the Diamond Jim hat with a Pinch Front.

I'm trying to decide if I like it.  It's a whole lot nicer than my most recent hat, which Belle told me was getting a little tattered and filthy.  She told me it was time for  a new ht.

Decisions, decisions.  This might become my SUnday hat, and I might go down to the western store next month and get another Cattleman's crease.  The last time I was in there, that was the only choice they had.