The bowler hat is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown created for Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester of Holkham, in 1850. It was 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". The Locks sent their design to the hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler who produced the prototype of the hat for Coke. The "iron hat" later picked up the name Bowler because of its makers family name, which has been used ever since. It was hard in order to protect the head from low tree branches for gamekeepers while they rode on horseback. 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.

In cricket

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Bowlers who took three wickets in a game of cricket with consecutive deliveries would be given a hat or cap (traditionally a bowler hat but not nessesarily), hence the name hat trick. The bowler could then walk up to the crowd and collect money in his hat.

Famous wearers

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• 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.
• 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 a bowler hat.
• John Steed, of Avengers fame.
• Madness (famous music group).
• Clarinetist Acker Bilk.
• In the 1986 film Pretty in Pink, Duckie wears a bowler hat.
• Big Smoke in 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 "The Son of Man."
• The Harry Potter character Cornelius Fudge is rarely seen without a lime-green bowler.
• 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, 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 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 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"
• Film director Vincent B.P. King has a trade mark bowler hat he wears, It is also the name of his film company.
• 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, "Venaculah? That's a doibey!!!"
• Sound artist::, Charlie Morrow, wears a bowler, which is his logo.
• Lord Bowler :: bounty hunter in The advtentures of Briscon County Jr.

Footnotes

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1. 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.
2. ibid. p.14.
3. ibid. p.16.
4. ibid. p.15.

External links

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• The Bowler

References

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Fred Miller Robinson, The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993).

Hats | English cultural icons

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