HAT STYLES IN NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 8

HAT STYLES IN NEW ZEALAND

DUNEDIN FIRM TO MAKE U.S. MODELS

VISIT BY TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

New Zealand men may soon be wearing examples of the latest creations of the leading American hat company, John B. Stetson, of Philadelphia. The company has granted a licence to Ross and Glendining, of Dunedin, to make Stetson hats. By May of this year three models will be on show throughout New Zealand, and in June they should be on sale.

Visiting Christchurch this week on his way to Dunedin was the technical director of Stetson’s company, Mr Samuel Landy, whose declared intention is to make New Zealand men hat conscious. He was quick to explain that his company did not make only the “10-gallon” variety familiar to devotees of Western films. Dress hats at the rate of 1,000,000 a year came from the factory. Men were conservative about their headgear, Mr Landy said. A man would become so accustomed to one particular style of hat that he would not change, even though he would be better suited by another style. His company had studied the market in New Zealand, and considered they understood the styles favoured. Enough New Zealand men wore hats, but they suffered from a fashion starvation. That was what Stetson’s intend to prevent.