A cowboy hat was the most popular item at our pop up shop at the recent Country to Country (C2C) festival. Maybe it was because the C2C festival was cancelled for the last two years due to Covid? Or perhaps that this years London event could have been cancelled due to the 02 Arena being damaged by storm Eunice? Whatever the reasons, the 2022 C2C festival was a huge success, especially for our stall. We almost sold out of our cowboy hats on the first day! You can check out our range of cowboy hats here.
What actually is a cowboy hat?
Admittedly not all our rock n roll hats are specifically cowboy hats. Just as not all UK country music is specifically country music – it takes in pure country, Americana, blues, soul, gospel and rock n roll. Our hat range includes fedoras, gamblers and even top hats. They are worn by musicians, actors, celebrities and all sorts of kick ass people. Especially country music fans!
Luke and Vera are both wearing a fedora hat in the photo above and this can be thought of as the ever-stylish hat to wear at both informal and formal occasions. Whilst a true cowboy hat with its extra wide brim would be used by a cowboy working out in the sun all day, he would probably wear a fedora for Sunday best or going out in the evening.
See our in-depth look at the fabulous fedora here. We also have reviews of the perfect fedora for men and women. And you can see our selection of fedora hats here.
Is a gambler hat a cowboy hat?
Hell yeah! The gambler hat has a bit of a rebellious streak to it – just as the name suggests. The photo above shows model and actress Stephanie Tripp on the left and Vera both wearing gambler hats, while singer/song writer Abi Phillips on the right wears her custom fedora. The gambler hat is often referred to as a cowboy hat, but it is also the preferred hat style for many musicians such as dirty blues star Troy Redfern who wears his iconic Redfern Rambler.
You can find more the history of the gambler hat here and you can see our gambler hat selection here.
Yeah, but top hats…?
Of course top hats aren’t cowboy hats, but who wouldn’t love one of our steam punk inspired top hats? Especially if you really want to stand out at a music festival! There’s no sign of the boring Victorian top hat heritage with our toppers, as you can see with the magnificent Rhiannon Mini Top Hat here.
Our top hats sold ridiculously quickly so we’ll be sure to keep adding them to our online shop. See our article for more information about our super cool top hats and when and how to wear them.
But doesn't it become a cowgirl hat if a woman wears it?
Absolutely! And while many of our cowboy hats are unisex there are a quite a few that are definitely cowgirl hats. You can see Crissie from UK country music super group The Shires wearing her bespoke fedora hat with Vera at the C2C show. Crissie has been a long time customer and she took This Morning presenter Josie Gibson to her favourite festival shop, Vera Black, as part of her country music make over! Take a look at the video below to get a feel for the fun of the C2C festival. And to check our Josie’s gorgeous Traveller fedora hat of course!
The C2C festival is never all hard work…
Whilst we were delighted to be rushed off our feet, we really enjoyed meeting new and old friends. We got to hang out and work with our models, friends and cowgirls.
Plus we showcased the new cowgirl boot wellies Vera designed for Talolo Boots. Here’s Olivia, Abi and Stephanie rockin’ the “Dallas Dreamer” cowgirl wellies.
Plus our newest member of staff Bobby Ryder attended his first festival and proved to be a big hit with visitors in his country-style shirt.
And keeping up with tradition, we were visited by George Boydon who comes to see us every year at C2C to play guitar in our iconic 1972 Dodge Boogie Van.
See below for a quick tour of the stall with Vera (while carrying baby Bobby Ryder!) – before all the cowboy hats sold out!
But if you’ve sold out of cowboy hats - can I still buy one?
Oh yes! We’re mad busy making more – we still make them ourselves by hand. Most of the hats sold via our online shop are made to order anyway so they are the best size for you. Check out one of Vera’s latest designs below – The Arizona Fedora hat. You can check out our range of cowboy hats here – do let us know if you have any questions.
And pop in and see us at C2C 2023!
