Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Carl Grimes (a cowboy-hat-wearing Chandler Riggs) in “The Walking Dead”
As fans of “The Walking Dead” know, when Carl Grimes puts his cowboy hat on, he’s ready to kick some zombie butt.
After abandoning his signature accessory earlier this season, the teen rocked it again in last week’s episode — perfectly timed to reviving his tough-guy image.
Carl’s not the only one making a 10-gallon hat look good. Scarlett Johansson was recently photographed wearing a straw version on the China set of her upcoming movie “Lucy.” Matthew McConaughey wears more than one as Ron Woodroof in the just-released “Dallas Buyers Club.” And on Nov. 24, Disney premieres a Web cartoon for preschoolers, “Sheriff Callie’s Wild West,” starring a tough-talking calico kitty wearing a pink one.
Not to mention New Yorkers pairing pinstriped suit with cowboy hats before hopping on the subway. Following in the bootsteps of Dennis Weaver and Clint Eastwood, and more recently, Timothy Olyphant’s character on “Justified,” urban cowboys are bringing the Wild West to the Big Apple.
“Hipsters are all coming in to get some attitude,” says Paul Greyshock, owner of Space Cowboy Boots in SoHo, which sells styles from beaver fur Stetsons to straw hats.
“I have a lot of guys who wear them to work — doctors, lawyers,” says Greyshock. “The New York way to wear them is folded up at the sides, so you can show your face. And check out the ladies.”
When 25-year-old set decorator Harrison Trubie wears one of his Western hats around Bushwick, where he lives, he gets some strange looks.
“I get looks like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ ” laughs Trubie. But when he spots a fellow John Wayne junkie, he thinks, “Awesome. Rad.”
“A big cowgirl hat makes a statement,” says Denis Morella, the art director who created Sheriff Callie’s overall look for the new show. “She’s someone who’s comfortable with who she is. And pink is a good color for showing self-esteem. It’s empowering.”
Holly Huckins, executive producer of “Sheriff Callie,” reminisced about a special moment for her in cowgirl hat history.
“This reminds me of when I was a student in New York in the early ’80s,” says Huckins, “and Mayor Koch was giving Dolly Parton a key to the city. Dolly was wearing a pink cowgirl hat, and she said, ‘Darling, everyone looks good in a cowboy hat.’ ”
Everyone, indeed. Greyshock says a cowboy hat purchase is a must on the vacation to-do list of many of his European customers. “Europeans are crazy about them,” he says. “They’ve always been in love with the spaghetti Westerns.”
Dana Blanchard, a hotel developer who splits his time between Los Angeles and Midtown, just likes Western wear. “I don’t ever notice anyone looking at me funny, and I don’t care,” he says. “I even wear my cowboy boots outside the jeans.”
As for "The Walking Dead's" zombie-killing Carl (played by Chandler Riggs), the show’s costume designer, Eulyn Hufkie-Womble, says that cowboy hats should never be limited to just Westerners, Southerners or country singers.
“Anyone can wear them!” she says. “I wear a straw cowboy hat with a bikini and distressed jean shorts in the summer … There are felt cowboy hats that are perfect for an autumn morning when it’s cold but bright outside.”
Something some New Yorkers are doing already.
“They know exactly what they’re doing,” says Marc Williamson, owner of JJ Hat Center in Midtown, which has been selling cowboy hats to New Yorkers since 1911. “One thing about a person wearing a Western hat in New York City, they already have their whole look down pat.”
Williamson just has one warning for city slickers looking to don a Stetson this season — stick to Manhattan and Williamsburg.
“Once you get to other parts of the boroughs,” he says, “you might get looked at a little oddly.”
mfriedman@nydailynews.com
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