Bowler hat
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The bowler hat is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown created for Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester of Holkham, in 1850.Template:Ref It was originally designed by the hatters James and George Lock of Mr. Lock of St. James's Street and was dubbed by them early on as the "iron hat".Template:Ref However, the Locks sent their design over to the hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler and they produced the prototype of the hat for Coke. The "iron hat" later picked up the name Bowler hat because of its makers family name, which has stuck ever since.Template:Ref It was originally built to be hard to protect the head from low tree branches for gamekeepers while they rode on horseback.Template:Ref Peaking in popularity towards the end of the 19th century, it offered a midway between the formality of the top hat, associated with the upper classes, and the casual nature of soft felt hats worn by the lower middle classes.
It was the traditional headwear of London city 'gents' and has become something of an English cultural icon. However English men stopped wearing hats as a matter of course in the 1960s, and most young English people in the 21st century have never seen a bowler hat worn as part of normal dress. It is also traditionally worn by members of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland during their 12th July annual parades, though usage has declined.
In the United States, this hat is also known as a derby hat.
It is also worn by women in South America.
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Famous uses
- Porters at Cambridge University are famous for their bowler hats.
- The Plug Uglies, a notorious street gang of 19th Century Baltimore, wore the bowler hat (called a "plug hat") which served as a helmet and occasional weapon in fights.
- Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the slapstick comedy duo Laurel and Hardy of the 1920s and 30s.
- Charlie Chaplin, another comedian from the early 1900s.
- Sir Winston Churchill, British politician.
- Benito Mussolini, fascist Italian dictator.
- Alex Delarge in A Clockwork Orange.
- The paintings of Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte.
- In Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, the only description of costume is that all four major characters wear them.
- John Steed, of Avengers fame, wears this hat.
- Clarinetist Acker Bilk.
- In the 1986 film Pretty in Pink, Duckie wears a bowler hat.
- Big Smoke in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- High significance is placed on Sabine's bowler hat from the novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera.
- Green bowler hats become a laughable fashion trend in Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh.
- Batman villain The Riddler
- In the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair starring Pierce Brosnan, Crown uses numerous doubles wearing bowler hats to trick his pursuers; inspired by Magritte's Surrealist painting "Golconda."
- The Harry Potter character Cornelius Fudge is rarely seen without a lime-green bowler.
- The detectives Thomson and Thompson in The Adventures of Tintin are easily recognizable by their trademark black bowlers.
- The character Oddjob in the James Bond series used a razor-edged bowler cap as a concealed weapon.
- The rapper Nate Dogg usually wears a bowler hat in his music videos.
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, late 19th century French painter.
- Homsar in the Homestar Runner online cartoon series wears a bowler hat, which often pops up into the air and moves around, yet almost always returns to his head.
- Bowler hats were among the trademark props of choreographer Bob Fosse. Liza Minelli is portrayed wearing a bowler hat on the cover for the motion picture Cabaret, which Fosse directed, and is also seen wearing it several times during the movie.
- John Hartford, American bluegrass composer, banjo and fiddle player, and entertainer, wore a bowler during many of his performances.
- Cartoon character Mr Benn, usually seen wearing a pinstriped suit and bowler hat.
- Jack White , of the White Stripes, wore a bowler hat in the music video for Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground. He also wore a bowler hat during the "White Blood Cells" era.
- Bowler The host of the norwegian entertainment program for children called "Kykkelikokkos"
- Agatha Christie's famous detective character, Hercule Poirot regularly sports a bowler hat.
Footnotes
- Template:Note Fred Miller Robinson, The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993). p.15.
- Template:Note ibid. p.14.
- Template:Note ibid. p.16.
- Template:Note ibid. p.15.
External links
References
Fred Miller Robinson, The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993). Template:Clothing-stub Template:England-stub
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