Pork pie hat

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A pork pie hat or porkpie hat is a felt hat, similar to a Trilby, dating from the mid 19th century, much the same as a fedora, but with a flattened top. The crown is short, and has a characteristic indent all the way around, rather than the "pinch crown" typically seen on fedoras and homburgs. It gets its name from its resemblance to a pork pie. The brim on a pork pie hat is generally on the smaller side, and is worn up, though it can be worn down in the front. The hats can also be made of straw.

Pork pie hats are often associated with jazz culture, though more recently they have had strong associations with ska. Charles Mingus wrote an elegy for jazz saxophone great Lester Young called "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat". In Britain they were popularized in the 1960s Rude Boy movement in Britain; then later adopted by the skinheads. The Pork-Pie was a staple of the British "man-about-town" for many years, before its association with any particular youth subculture.

Silent film comedian Buster Keaton often wore pork-pie hats. Musician Pete Doherty has made the pork-pie hat famous in recent years.

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In the classic Warner Bros. cartoon "Three Little Bops" the three pigs, all jazz musicians, are all wearing--you guessed it--porkpie hats.

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