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Father of Cowboy Fashion Dies

post #1 of 8
Thread Starter 
Like western wear? Pearly snaps? Know your roots!

http://www.economist.com/obituary/di...ry_id=12000749

Until he created his shirts, there was no distinctively western look in American couture. There were cowboys; but they wore dusty working clothes, accessorised with sweaty bandannas and clanking spurs, that no one much cared to copy. Indeed, Mr Weil early on in his career made work-gear for cowboys, and learnt an important fact: they had no money. If he wanted to make any money himself, he would have to appeal not to the catwalk instincts of cattlemen, which were hard to spot, but to wannabe easterner cowboys who lived in, say, New York. Fortunately, there were plenty of them.
post #2 of 8
Thread Starter 
Here's a bit more on him. Truly an icon.
http://www.charlesphoenix.com/jack-a-weil-1901-2008/
post #3 of 8
A sad day for sure..
I've been inspired by Weil's way of treating a business for half my life since the first time i ever read about him when i was a teenager...
post #4 of 8
Wow, 107.

I liked this bit:

Quote:
In his long, long life, Mr Weil accumulated plenty of simple business sense. He knew J.C. Penney, and thought him smart. Levi-Strauss was a nice fellow, but got too big for his britches; Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, was a "hillbilly son of a bitch". Walton constantly harassed him to supply Wal-Mart with shirts, but Mr Weil never wanted any customer to take more than 5% of his business.
post #5 of 8
Enormous shirt catalog, just checked some of it out.
post #6 of 8
Had seen the shirts around some, though I had no idea the brand carried so much history on its shoulders.
post #7 of 8
I had no idea he was prevalent in the history of the standards of western wear we all know today. I have a lot of respect for him and all that he's done for the business.
post #8 of 8
Good piece, and an interesting guy. 'He thought that "any young man worth his salt" ought to be a Democrat; but that once he had a bit of money, the only way to keep hold of it was to turn Republican.'

Incidentally, Cy Twombly just died.
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