Collector, Curator, Dealer, Historian
I first met Chris in Taos, New Mexico at his gallery Tres Estrellas. Chris specializes in rare southwestern textiles; Navajo, Pueblo, Hispanic Rio Grande, Saltillo sarapes, Mexican regional styles, and material culture from New Mexico’s past. He is a wealth of knowledge on these subjects with a beautiful space, just off the Taos plaza. Chris is a wonderful human, and rarely seen without a hat.
I’d feel naked in this world without a hat... but upon reflection, for me it wasn’t always so. My story began in south Texas in the 1960s... a fourth generation Texan at that, and with ranches on both sides of my family. Growing up, we’d spend weekends at one “place” or another, and my childhood was steeped in ranching traditions, tastes and textures. Ironically, as I grew older, I struggled with the myth of Texas as seen in Westerns, vs. the ranching experience I lived in the Coastal Bend... the region from which all legendary cattle trails originated. We were ranchers, or cattlemen... and most of my elders wore hats on the order of the classic Stetson “Open Road”, or more often than not, inexpensive straw “potato chips” that were an obvious nod to the oppressive Texas heat and coastal humidity. None of it looked like the “Texas” I saw in the movies... or, none of the movies resembled the Texas I knew and lived in, until Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove” came along.
Fast forward 40 years or so, and my surroundings today do resemble most Westerns... my ranch adjoins the ranch location where Lonesome Dove’s Montana scenes were filmed, and the vast majority of latter day Westerns have been shot in the wilds of Northern New Mexico. This country defines “Big”; and it’s epically vast, with 100 mile visibility, situated at high elevations and often beneath a merciless sun... and you will feel naked without a good hat here! We live between 7,000’ and 10,000’, and our sun will cook you, or our shade of an evening will chill you to your core. It’s a landscape of extremes as much as it’s beautiful... so after decades of hat wearing, my journey and tastes have been in constant evolution, revisiting historical styles beyond those I saw in my youth. For me a hat is shelter, yet by extension, becomes a battle worn expression of who you are.
Looking at my hats, most of them have pinched telescoped crowns, with pencil rolled brims, ranging between 4”-5”... a telescope crown fits closely, and at 6’-5” tall, I don’t need a tall crowned hat, plus in windy, open country, close fitting crowns have long been popular. A pencil rolled, kettle curled brim holds its shape well in snow and rain. One of my favorite hats is similar to a “Gus McCrae” style, in a natural felt, and sporting a 3/4”wide braided horsehair band. I get more comments on that hat than any other!
In closing, I’ll allow that wearing a hat is a statement that you must transcend, and like all sustainable relationships, you must own your hat as much as it owns you... it isn’t about ego or pretension... (it isn’t to me). That said, I’m not wearing mainstream styles, but hats that are an extension of what I’ve become... who I am today, vs who I wanted to be. Those things come with time, like sweat stains, grime and wear, as much as the wrinkles and lines on my face!
-Chris Ferguson
Learn more about Chris and his gallery here: https://tedtaos.com