Dall Smith, The Cowboy’s Tailor
When we found this exquisite pair of jeans in a small vintage shop south of Spain, we knew we had struck an unfairly forgotten piece of western wear gold.
The label read: Dall Smith, The Cowboy's Tailor
Nogales, Arizona
Based on just a quick look at the fabric, style, details and fasteners, along with the logo on the tag, we were confident this pair must have been produced somewhere between the 1940s and 1950s. The label itself was a classic marker of its time - ranch-inspired typography with a bucking horse, cowboy or another novelty scene are typical characteristics of the labels from the era. We know pretty much about famous California tailors, but nowhere in our nerdy books, catalogues and collector careers, we've seen Dall Smith's name.
It turns out Dallas “Dall” Smith Laverne was a one-room tailor who opened his shop at 215 Grand Avenue in Nogales, Arizona, shortly after WWII. When we looked up his name, as people of our age do, first in Google - almost no results (one listing with a shirt carrying the same tag, though!), then back to books (blank), we knew we had to pull the heavy ammo. Chat GPT model 3o precisely. We've uploaded all the pictures and after a good few minutes of thinking, Chat said we've found a pair as rare as wild mustang in central London.
Following AI's lead, we've decided to spend the rest of our Sunday afternoon (as people of our profession do) browsing daily magazines from Arizona. Date range - 1944-1961. Did we say these magazines were the daily ones?
It was quite a laborious task because a)we were distracted by ads from the era, appreciating the design and creativity, but b) we were determined. The feeling you get when you enter a thrift shop and you just know that you're gonna find something - that's the feeling we had, somewhere on page 7 of The Arizona Republic from March 3, 1955. We just knew it. Between half-pager ads of Montgomery Ward, there it was, a tiny mention: famous Dall Smith.
Digging further, we've finally learned a bit more about this famous tailor - The Arizona Republic from March 29, 1955, printed a little feature of Dall Smith and his workshop. Thanks to that article, we know that 40 employees produced around 900 garments weekly for nationwide distribution and that the business was established five years ago, in 1950. Dall and his wife were both proudly making custom western wear for the whole family, dogs included.
Another trace we've found was in Santa Ynez Valley News dated August 17, 1951. Kent’s Men’s Wear, Solvang, CA printed an ad in which they advertised Dall's Smith custom-made western wear available in their store. We can assume that this was some sort of a wholesale business and that indeed Dall Smith was known across the country. The obituary printed in The Jersey Journal on May 26, 1961, proves that his name had travelled well beyond the Southwest.
As for the jeans, we're pretty sure that they were one of his first creations. The lack of zips (zippers were rationed during WWII), the Hollywood waist (according to Chat GPT: by 1950 Smith was adding a conventional waistband on most runs), post-war but pre-plastic United-Carr snaps, pink/peach pocketing and the 2-thread narrow overlock on all raw edges (Union Special 81-class “Merrow” machines were common in small western shops by 1945) all suggest that these details match the production model from that era.
If you happen to be a lucky one with a waist of 25, these are now listed in our store, here.