The Sunday Oregonian, Portland, May 8, 1910   Men Who Launched Oregon's Ship of State Were Not Beau Brummels Many Costumes Which Would Be Called Strange and Weird Today Adorned the Honest, Hardy Pioneers Who Attended Public Meeting at Champoeg, in 1843.   By George H. Himes   The Oregon Ship of State was a frail bark at the date of its launching, on May 2, 1843, at Champoeg.  Little did those who participated in that momentous event realize its significance at the time.   It would be a matter of great interest had there been a chronicler present at the meeting 67 years ago to describe carefully the style of dress worn by those assembled there, in order to contrast it with the fashion of today.  Suffice to say, however, it is known that there was a great mixture of garments.  Each man was a law to himself in the matter of his apparel.   No white shirts -- "biled rags", in the vernacular of that time, were worn except by the few missionary preachers, and by them only on Sundays.  The starched shirt and white stock was a badge of distinction.   The French settlers were clothed in Hudson's Bay Company stuffs, such as calico shirts, brown corduroy and moleskin pants, with moccasins or coarse brogans on their feet, with soft, broad-brimmed, black felt hats.   The mountain men - mostly Americans - were mainly dressed in buckskin suits, with ample fringes on the pants, with the same soft hats, or coon skin caps.  Some American settlers were clad in the residue of their garments "left over" from the journey across the plains the previous year, while others wore "mixed" garments of buckskin, doeskin, and corduroy.  Altogether it was a motley crowd -- a crowd which, if its personnel could be given with reasonable accuracy and the full significance of what has grown out of that gathering of incongruous elements be adequately portrayed, would form a subject for a great historical painting.