COWGIRL CASANOVA

By now, you’ve probably spotted the statement sparkle shining from beneath the brims of the crystal-encrusted cowboy hats that are complementing this collection. Those blinged out beauties are brought to by our very cool collaboration with Danna Casanova, founder of Casanova Hats.

“My tie to the Western industry is that I used to ride in the Mexican rodeo, but I transitioned into design by mistake,” she laughed. “I’d always loved fashion, but my degree was in political science!”

Interestingly enough, her foray into fashion doesn’t stray that far from our own story. While we got our start peddling coats to pay for a ski trip, Danna ended up bartering a batch of custom crystal hats for a professional photo shoot.

“My daughter was in a rodeo pageant competition, and I wasn’t finding a hat for her,” she said. “I wanted her to wear something different, that stood out and represented who she was. So, I made her one. And then when she won the title, I wanted to keep that memory, and I booked a session with the best photographer on my side of town. I knew it was going to be expensive, and I didn’t know how I was going to pay for it, but it was kind of a blessing in disguise. The photographer stopped at one point and said, ‘Can I ask you something? Where did you get that hat?’ When I told her I made it, she proposed exchanging pictures for some hats she wanted to give as gifts. Those were the first hats I made for someone else.”

And that’s how it started. She then began making hats for her friends, and her friends’ friends, and the seed was planted. At that point, Danna had a decision to make.

“At the time, I was finishing my masters in linguistics,” she explained. “My goal at the time was to become a Spanish linguistics professor at a university. I had finished my courses, I was working on my thesis, I had 100 pages left, and I had that realization that [that goal] was not who I was anymore; I wasn’t who I was when I started the program.”

For Danna, it was more complex than considering it ‘quitting’, but she walked away. She pointed her cowboy boots down another path, and she did it with intention. She committed four years – the same amount of time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree – to pursue this endeavor. And wouldn’t you know it, four years later, eighteen of her Casanova Hats were featured in a permanent display in the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, where they remain to this day.

Incidentally, that wasn’t the only pivotal part the National Cowgirl Museum played in the trajectory of Casanova Hats.

“The ladies probably don’t know this story, but years ago, back before the Hall of Fame Luncheon was even hosted in the Dickies Arena, the organization extended an invitation for anyone with a business to decorate a table,” she recalled. “So I had done that, and then when I was loading up afterward, I saw all these ladies walking across the street – and they were FANCY, I thought they might even be celebrities. Here I was looking like I just cleaned my garage, and they were so elegant – I wanted to know them, I wanted to be friends with them. I asked someone, ‘Who are they?!’ It turns out they were all headed to the fashion show, and that’s when I first discovered Double D Ranch.”

(Pretty poetic, considering one of our taglines is “If you can’t spot it from across the street, it’s not worth wearing”, right?)

Anyway, after a few years of casual mentions from our crossover customers that maybe we should consider a collaboration, we formally met Danna at the big grand opening celebration we hosted in Fort Worth when she provided the perfect Casanova Hat to complete Tanya Tucker’s look. Once again, it was the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame that caused us to cross paths at the annual luncheon, just in time to team up for Rhinestone Suits & Cowboy Boots.

“The collaboration with Danna and Casanova [Hats] was a no-brainer,” Cheryl said. “I mean, bling is her thing! And here we’ve got this collection coming that is centered around sparkle and shine and standing out and really embracing the empowerment of donning something that demands to be seen. Casanova Hats are exactly that. They’re the exclamation point to an outfit.”

Three of the hats you see featured in Rhinestone Suits & Cowboy Boots – Marfa Nights, Starlight Stampede, and Wild Thing – were already in her repertoire, but are currently exclusive to DDR for a limited time. The collab part really comes in with the pretty pink Neon Prairie Hat that Danna created custom just for this collection.

“I needed pink,” Cheryl said. “And I had a vision for a particular pink hat in mind. I wanted it to have a bit of bling and a touch of twang, so that’s where the toebug stitching came into play. I sent Danna a sketch of one of our signature stitch styles, and she brought it to life in bling on the brim – it’s just perfection.”

Like the rest of this collection, Casanova Hats are designed to stand out, but they also stand strong. Danna has developed an operation consisting of a handful of hatmakers and a dedicated crystals team who work together to ensure every brim is built to withstand the weight of the crystals it carries.

“I truly believe that every cowgirl should own a fancy hat,” she said. “Not one of those to use every day to clean the stalls, but one that makes her stand out and says, ‘I’m powerful’.”