Bowler hat Totally Explained

Everything about The Bowler Hat totally explained

The bowler hat (also known as a 'derby' or 'billycock') is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown created for Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester, in 1850.

History

The bowler hat, known in the USA as the "Derby", was designed by the hatters James and George Lock of Mr. Lock of St. James's Street, a firm founded in 1676 and still in business. It was originally known as the "iron hat". The Locks sent their design to the hatmakers Thomas Bowler and his uncle William Bowler at their works in Southwark, London, and the Bowlers produced the prototype of the hat for Coke. The "iron hat" later picked up the name Bowler because of its makers' family name. There are various theories as to why a hard hat was designed. It may have been to protect the head of a man on horseback against low tree branches. Alternatively, some have suggested it was designed for the gamekeepers of Holkham Estate in North Norfolk, and was hard to protect them from being hit on the head by poachers. 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 flat hats worn by the working classes.
   The bowler became a cultural identifier, ironically with two completely different meanings: throughout most of England it was associated with professional servants, for example butlers, and so upon seeing a man wearing a bowler in a pub or on the street, it was fairly safe to assume he was a "gentleman's gentleman," meaning a valet or butler; in London itself, however, it was associated with professionals, and so a man wearing a bowler in "the City" could safely be assumed to be a lawyer, stock broker, banker or government official. As the traditional headwear of London city 'gents' it has become something of an English cultural icon. The bowler was also to some extent adopted by the surrealist movement, particularly by Magritte, as an object which typified the absurdity of "normal life" and appeared in many surrealist paintings in one guise or another.
   However, Englishmen 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. The decline of the bowler is possibly linked to the rise in car ownership in the 1960s which would make it difficult to wear . It is, however, still commonly seen worn at some formal public events, such as by town councillors at Armistice Day ceremonies. It is also traditionally worn by members of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland during their 12 July annual parades, though usage has declined.
   In the United States and England, this hat is also known as a derby hat, after Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, founder in 1780 of the Epsom Derby. The cultural significance in the United States was slightly different. Though certainly not exclusively so, the derby tended to be associated with urban culture, and particularly with the well-to-do that had risen from the working class. Hence, it was often seen on the heads of "machine politicians", urban Irish-descended "ward heelers" and others, and so often appears in movies, comic books and comic strips of the 1930s and 1940s as a silent signal that the wearer is of this group. Al Smith, who exemplified the urban Tammany politician of the 1920s, was often seen in his distinctive derby: typically, men's full-sized derbies are black, but Al Smith always wore a brown derby.
   A small bowler hat worn at an angle is typically referred to as a "gruff hat" or "pickle hat".
In Germany, the hat is known as Melone (melon), due to its shape. Similarly in France it's known as "chapeau melon".
   It has also been worn by Quechua and Aymara women in Peru and Bolivia since the 1920s when supposedly a shipment of bowler hats was sent from Europe to Bolivia via Peru for use by Europeans who were working on the construction of the railroad. The hats were found to be too small and were distributed to locals. The luxurious, elegant and cosmopolitan Aymara Chola dress which is an icon to Bolivia (bowler hat, Manila Shawl, heavy pollera (a type of skirt) with petticoats, boots, jewelry, etc.) was born and evolved in Chukiago City and it's clearly not provincial but urban. The dress has become an ethnic symbol for the Aymara women. In addition, numerous Aymara live and work as campesinos in the surrounding Altiplano .

Famous wearers

Curly Howard would wear a derby hat, which gave him the chance to call it a "doiby" in his Brooklyn accent.
Downtown Julie Brown wore a bowler hat on MTV's hit dance show Club MTV, which aired from 1985-1992.
Ian Anderson was seen wearing a red bowler hat at numerous performances with Jethro Tull
Lucius Beebe noted early- and mid-20th century boulevardier, author, journalist, gourmand, and railroad enthusiast
Aviation pioneers, Americans Orville & Wilbur Wright, and pioneering French aviators Alberto Santos-Dumont and Louis Blériot
Charlie Chaplin, a comedian from the early part of the 20th century
Moon Mullins
Matthew Beard, who played "Stymie" in the Little Rascals movies (he was given his original bowler by Stan Laurel)
Lou Costello wore one occasionally in films, but was always seen in a too-small derby on television's The Abbott and Costello Show.
Captain Peacock of the television show Are You Being Served?
Captain George Mainwaring a fictional character in Dad's Army played by Arthur Lowe
Comedian John Valby has always worn a black bowler hat on stage
Malcolm McDowell's character Alex wears a bowler hat in A Clockwork Orange
Superman villain Mr. Mxyzptlk
Agatha Christie's famous detective character Hercule Poirot regularly wears a bowler hat.
The villain in Erich Kästner's children's novel "Emil and the Detectives" is known only as "The man in the bowler hat"
Porters at Cambridge University and Christ Church College Oxford
John Cleese in the infamous Ministry of Silly Walks
The Plug Uglies, a notorious street gang of 19th century Baltimore, MD, wore the bowler hat (called a "plug hat") which served as a helmet and occasional weapon in fights
Corporal Thaddeus Aloysius Cadwallander "Dum Dum" Dugan, of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the slapstick comedy duo Laurel and Hardy of the 1920s and 30s
Dominic Monaghan, actor of Lord of the Rings and Lost
Yuber from the Suikoden series wears one in Suikoden 3
Sir Winston Churchill, British politician
Wavy Gravy, American political activist
Jose Rizal, Philippine national hero. He wore a bowler hat at his execution
The paintings of Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte
Leopold Bloom in James Joyce's novel Ulysses
Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers
In Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, the only description of costume is that all four major characters wear bowler hats
John Steed, of The Avengers fame
Madness (famous music group)
Clarinetist Acker Bilk
In the 1986 film Pretty in Pink, Duckie wears a bowler hat
Valet-extraordinaire Jeeves, particularly the version played by Stephen Fry
Big Smoke in
High significance is placed on Sabine's bowler hat from the novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera and it's depicted in both the novel's cover artwork and the one sheet for the film version
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 The Son of Man
The Harry Potter character Cornelius Fudge is rarely seen without a lime-green bowler. Mad-Eye Moody also wears one when he needs to conceal his magical eye.
The detectives Thomson and Thompson (originally Dupont and Dupond) in The Adventures of Tintin are easily recognizable by their trademark black bowlers
The character Oddjob in the James Bond novel Goldfinger used a metal razor-edged bowler hat as a concealed weapon. It appears more of a flat-topped top hat in the movie, but still has the metal edge and functions as a weapon.
The rapper Nate Dogg usually wears a bowler hat in his music videos
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 19th century French painter
Mr. Potato Head from the 1995 film Toy Story and its 1999 sequel Toy Story 2 has a black bowler
The fictional character Homsar in the Homestar Runner online cartoon series wears an orange bowler hat, which often pops up into the air and moves around, yet almost always returns to his head; several other bowler hats are seen in the Homestar Runner universe
Bowler hats were among the trademark props of choreographer Bob Fosse. Liza Minnelli 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 musician and singer-songwriter, 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"
Keith ‘Monkey’ Warren of The Adicts: the bowler is part of his costume
In the Three Stooges short Disorder in the Court (1936), when a bowler-wearing Curly is asked by the defense attorney to "kindly speak English and drop the vernacular", a puzzled Curly looks at his hat and famously replies, "Vuhnaculah? That's a doiby!"
Doiby Dickles, a cab driver who assists the Golden Age superhero Green Lantern. A native of Brooklyn, Dickles has nicknamed himself for his derby hat, which he pronounces "doiby".
"Brooklyn" (Dan Turpin), a member of the Golden Age comic book crime-fighting team the Boy Commandos (in the WW2 era), wears a bowler at all times and is nicknamed for his native borough in New York City
Lord Bowler, bounty hunter in The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
Simon Koch, musician and TV writer
Brian Viglione, drummer of the self-proclaimed "punk cabaret" duo The Dresden Dolls, wears a bowler as part of the group's miming tradition.
Bat Masterson, Old West adventurer, lawman, and writer, wore a bowler and carried a cane even while working as a lawman in Dodge City with Wyatt Earp
Mr. John Smith, a fictional character from the Nickelodeon series Hey Arnold!, lives in room 13 of the boarding house with Arnold and his family. His only distinguishing characteristic is, in fact, his bowler.
The television series Firefly featured a recurring character named Badger, a rogue masquerading as a respectable businessperson, who wore a bowler hat
American automata-maker Dug North wears a bowler and has adopted the bowler as part of his logo image
Stuart Murdoch of the band Belle & Sebastian
Eddie Jordan, former District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana and former Federal Prosecutor who successfully prosecuted Edwin Edwards. Jordan is well known for almost always wearing a bowler hat when appearing in public.
John Bonham drummer of the English rock band Led Zeppelin
Bowler Hat Guy (aka Michael 'Goob' Yagoobian) is known very well for his bowler hat named DOR-15 (aka Doris) in the 2007 film, Meet the Robinsons
Willie "The Lion" Smith always wore a Derby because his mother said it made him look "dignified."
Otto Šimánek as Pan Tau in a children's television series of the same name
Detlef Soost, a German dancer, used to wear a bowler hat in a German TV show. Based on this the term "Mr. Soost's hat" became part of German youth slang.
'The Bloke' from the movie, 'The Sentimental Bloke'
Ding-a-Ling, the diminutive sidekick of Hokey Wolf
Actress Keira Knightley wears a dark brown bowler hat in her advertisements for Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle campaign, in which she plays Coco Chanel.
Tito Jackson
Tom DeLonge appeared in the Angels and Airwaves Everything's Magic Short Film wearing a bowler hat
Addams Family member Cousin Itt
Paul Smith, lead singer of the British Indie band Maximo Park
Paul Newman wore a bowler in the classic western, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"
Mr. Tusks, of Dinosaur Comics, occasionally wears a tiny bowler hat in his capacity as the (vice) mayor of Tiny Towne.

Further Information

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