Dia De Los Muertos: Jack Weil, Maker Of Western Snap-Button Shirts, Is Dead At 107

Jack Weil, the man credited with popularizing the “Western shirt” — favored today by rockabillies, old Mexican men and lesbians — has died at the age of 107. Weil died at home in Denver,Colorado - the city in which he first began selling his famous shirts back in 1946:

Steve Weil said his grandfather was the first to design Western shirts with snap buttons and also created pockets with jagged, sawtooth-pattern flaps. The snaps are often topped with real or synthetic mother of pearl.

“I learned fast you can’t sell to cowboys; they have no money,” the elder Weil said in a 2001 Associated Press interview. “You have to appeal to the cowboy in everyone and sell to them.”

Weil’s shirts have been worn in movies by Elvis Presley, Clark Gable (in his last film, “The Misfits”) and Heath Ledger (”Brokeback Mountain.”) Bob Dylan, John Fogerty and Eric Clapton also have sported the shirts.

We’ll think of you this evening, Mr. Weil, while we look way off yonder into the sunset, adjusting our bolo ties and a-thinkin’ back to simpler times.

Denver Western wear maker Jack Weil dies at 107; made snap-button shirts [Canadian Press]