bowler hat

File:If you want to get ahead ... - geograph.org.uk - 4528006.jpg, St James's Street, London where the first bowler was sold in 1849]]

The bowler hat was designed in 1849 by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler to fulfill an order placed by the company of hatters James Lock & Co. of St James's, which had been commissioned by a customer to design a close-fitting, low-crowned hat to protect gamekeepers from low-hanging branches while on horseback. The keepers had previously worn top hats, which were knocked off easily and damaged.

The identity of the customer is less certain, with some suggesting it was Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, who had an estate at Holkham Hall, in Norfolk.Roetzel, Bernhard (1999). Gentleman's Guide to Grooming and Style. Barnes & Noble. However, research performed by a younger relation of the 1st Earl casts doubt{{vague|date=July 2021}} on this story, and it is claimed by James Lock & Co. that the bowler was invented for Edward Coke, the younger brother of Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lockhatters.com/pages/the-coke|title=The Coke|first=Lock & Co|last=Hatters|website=Lock & Co. Hatters}} When Edward Coke arrived in London on 17 December 1849 to collect his hat he reputedly placed it on the floor and stamped hard on it twice to test its strength; the hat withstood this test and Coke paid 12 shillings for it.{{cite book | last = Swinnerton | first = Jo | title = The History of Britain Companion | publisher = Robson | year = 2005 | page = 42 | isbn = 1-86105-914-0}}

File:Mary Poppins4.jpg as the banker George Banks in Mary Poppins. Set in Edwardian London, bowlers were associated with City gents.]]

The bowler has had varying degrees of significance in British culture. They were popular among the working classes in the 19th century. From the early 20th century, bowler hats were more commonly associated with financial workers and businessmen working in London's financial districts, also known as "City gents". According to The Daily Telegraph, "The hat was adopted by City workers in the early 1900s and teamed with a coronation buttonhole and walking stick to give the impression of sophistication". The traditional wearing of bowler hats with City business attire declined during the 1970s.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8045026/History-of-the-Bowler-Hat.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8045026/History-of-the-Bowler-Hat.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=History of the Bowler Hat |work =The Daily Telegraph |access-date=3 March 2014}}{{cbignore}} In modern times bowlers are not common, although the so-called City gent wearing a bowler and carrying a rolled umbrella remains a representation of Englishmen. For this reason, two bowler-hatted men were used in the logo of the British building society (subsequently bank) Bradford & Bingley.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7641493.stm |title=Who'll get custody of Bradford and Bingley's bowler hat? |work=BBC News |access-date=25 September 2011}}

File:12 July in Belfast, 2011 (012).JPG wearing bowler hats while celebrating The Twelfth, Belfast 2011]]

In Scotland and Northern Ireland the bowler hat is worn traditionally by members of the main Loyalist fraternities such as the Orange Order, the Independent Loyal Orange Institution, the Royal Black Preceptory and the Apprentice Boys of Derry for their parades and annual celebrations.{{cite web|title=Bowler Hats, Sashes and Banners: the Orange Order in Northern Ireland|url=http://www.demotix.com/news/30876/bowler-hats-sashes-and-banners-orange-order-northern-ireland#media-30870|publisher=Demotix|access-date=21 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140506052951/http://www.demotix.com/news/30876/bowler-hats-sashes-and-banners-orange-order-northern-ireland#media-30870#media-30870|archive-date=6 May 2014|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}

Female officers of many British police forces also wear bowler hats as part of their uniforms. This includes a cap badge and generally has a black-and-white chequered band (called Sillitoe tartan) around the hat. Bowlers worn by female traffic police officers have white crowns or covers. These hats are not worn in the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

They are also part of the uniforms of female police community support officers (PCSOs).

File:WMP_Museum_-_West_Midlands_Police_hat_2_02.jpg|A typical bowler hat of female British police officers

File:WMP_Museum_-_West_Midlands_Police_Community_Support_Officer_hat_1_01.jpg|A typical bowler of female PCSOs in the UK

File:Butch Cassidy with bowler hat.jpg c. 1900]]

The bowler, not the cowboy hat or sombrero, was the most popular hat in the American West, prompting Lucius Beebe to call it "the hat that won the West".{{cite book | title=The Hat That Won the West | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19571026&id=xQQpAAAAIBAJ&pg=7036,5636283 | access-date=10 February 2010}} Both cowboys and railroad workers preferred the hat because it would not blow off easily in strong wind while riding a horse, or when sticking one's head out the window of a speeding train. It was worn by both lawmen and outlaws, including Bat Masterson, Butch Cassidy, Black Bart, and Billy the Kid. In the United States the hat came to be known commonly as the derby, and American outlaw Marion Hedgepeth was commonly referred to as "the Derby Kid".

File:Schamanin.jpg and Aymara peoples of South America in the 1920s.]]

In South America, the bowler, known as {{lang|es|bombín}} in Spanish, has been worn by Quechua and Aymara women since the 1920s, when it was introduced to Bolivia by British railway workers. For many years, a factory in Italy manufactured such hats for the Bolivian market, but they are now made locally.{{cite web | last = Eigo | first = Tim | title = Bolivian Americans | work = Countries and Their Cultures | url = http://www.everyculture.com/multi/A-Br/Bolivian-Americans.html | access-date = 13 August 2008}}

File:TheNorwegianKingsGuard.jpg

In Norway, Hans Majestet Kongens Garde (the royal guards) wear plumed bowler hats as part of their uniform. It was copied from the hats of the Italian Bersaglieri troops; a regiment that so impressed the Swedish princess Louise that she insisted the Norwegian guards be similarly hatted in 1860.{{Cite web|url=https://royalcentral.co.uk/europe/norway/the-norwegian-royal-guards-suffer-under-unusual-heat-wave-103891/|title=The Norwegian Royal Guards suffer under unusual heat wave|date=5 June 2018}}

In the Philippines, bowler hats were known by its Spanish name {{lang|es|sombrero hongo}} (literally "mushroom hat"). Along with the native buntal hats, they were a common part of the traditional men's ensemble of the barong tagalog during the second half of the 19th century.{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Coo|first=Stéphanie Marie R.|date=2014|url=https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01126974/document |title=Clothing and the colonial culture of appearances in nineteenth century Spanish Philippines (1820–1896)|publisher=Université Nice Sophia Antipolis}}

The bowler hat was worn by the national hero of the Philippines, José Rizal, during his execution on 30 December 1896, and it is still seen as symbolic of the history of the Philippine Revolution.

The bowler hat was famously used by actors such as Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Shemp Howard and Curly Howard; and by the fictional character John Steed of The Avengers, played by Patrick Macnee.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8043423/Bowler-hat-makes-a-comeback.html "Bowler hat makes a comeback"]. The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 25 September 2011. In the 1964 film Mary Poppins, set in Edwardian London, 1910, the London banker George Banks (played by David Tomlinson) wears a bowler.{{cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/56282f68-96f1-11dd-8cc4-000077b07658 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/56282f68-96f1-11dd-8cc4-000077b07658 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The supercalifragilistic answer|last=Kellaway|first=Lucy|date=12 October 2008|work=Financial Times}}

File:Signs of the Time - geograph.org.uk - 1333229.jpg logo (pictured in 2009) outside a branch in Manchester, England]]

The British bank Bradford & Bingley owns more than 100 separate trademarks featuring the bowler hat, its long-running logo.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7641493.stm |title= Who'll get custody of Bradford and Bingley's bowler hat? |work=BBC News |date=30 September 2008 |access-date=2 October 2008}} In 1995, the bank purchased, for £2000, a bowler hat which had once belonged to Stan Laurel.

The bowler is part of the Droog outfit that main character Alex wears in the film version of A Clockwork Orange to the extent that contemporary fancy dress costumes for this character refer to the bowler hat.{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clockwork-Orange-Prisoner-Halloween-Costume/dp/B01M8I5HH8|title=Clockwork Orange Fancy Dress Costume Men's Extra Large: Amazon.co.uk: Toys & Games|website=www.amazon.co.uk|access-date=22 November 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/|title=A Clockwork Orange|date=2 February 1972|access-date=22 November 2017|via=www.imdb.com}}

There was a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, California known as The Brown Derby. The first and most famous of these was shaped like a derby.{{cite web | url=http://beniciaherald.me/2013/09/27/the-rogue-and-the-little-lady-the-romance-of-wilson-mizner-and-anita-loos/ | title=The Rogue and the Little Lady: The romance of Wilson Mizner and Anita Loos | work=The Bernica Herald | access-date=1 January 2014 | author=Rubay, Donnell}}

Many paintings by the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte feature bowler hats. The Son of Man consists of a man in a bowler hat standing in front of a wall. The man's face is largely obscured by a hovering green apple. Golconda depicts "raining men" all wearing bowler hats.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Choreographer Bob Fosse frequently incorporated bowler hats into his dance routines. This use of hats as props, as seen in the 1972 movie Cabaret, would become one of his trademarks.{{cite web|url=http://bobfossebio.weebly.com/fosses-inspiration--trademarks.html/|title=Fosse's Inspiration & Trademarks|website=Bob Fosse|access-date=22 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201081313/https://bobfossebio.weebly.com/fosses-inspiration--trademarks.html/|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=dead}}

In the 2007 Disney animated film Meet the Robinsons, the main antagonist is known as the Bowler Hat Guy.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter series is frequently mentioned as wearing a bowler hat.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Roman Torchwick, a recurring villain in the web animated series RWBY wears a bowler hat. It is later worn by his henchwoman Neopolitan after Roman's death.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

The third album by British rock group Stackridge, released in 1974, is called The Man in the Bowler Hat.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-man-in-the-bowler-hat-mw0000615153|title=The Man in the Bowler Hat – Stackridge | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic|via=www.allmusic.com}}

In The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends cartoon series, the legendary "Kerwood Derby" was worn by such world conquerors as Alexander the Great and Elvis Presley (a play on the name of then popular tv personality Durward Kirby).

In the Series One episode "The Think Tank" of the program Are You Being Served?, the Grace Brothers store policy is revealed to include a hierarchical order for hats male personnel wear: bowlers for departmental heads and above, homburgs for senior floor staff and trilbys or caps for junior floor staff. The character of Captain Peacock is admonished for wearing a bowler when he is only entitled to a homburg, until Mr Grace, the store owner, insists that Peacock wear a bowler.

In the mid-1960s Batman TV series, the Penguin's band of "fine feathered finks" usually wear derby hats. The only exception was in Batman: The Movie, where his men donned pirate gear to crew his penguin-themed submarine.

There is a giant bowler hat along I-30 in south Dallas, Texas.{{Cite web |date=2020-05-23 |title=Dallas Public Art: The Bowler Hat and Stanley's Umbrella |url=http://dallaslibrary2.org/blogs/bookedSolid/2020/05/dallas-public-art-the-bowler-hat-and-stanleys-umbrella/ |access-date=2023-09-20 |website=Booked Solid |language=en-US}}

Charlie Chaplin wore a bowler hat to his morning dress as part of his 'Little Tramp' costume.[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/charlie-chaplins-bowler-hat-sold-at-auction/ "Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat sold at auction"]. CBS News (New York). Retrieved 11 June 2016.

Bing Crosby wears a bowler hat in the 1946 film Road to Utopia, among others.{{cite web|url=http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-road-to-utopia-bing-crosby-bob-hope-1946-courtesy-csu-archives-everett-50015098.html|title=Stock Photo – ROAD TO UTOPIA, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, 1946. Courtesy: CSU Archives / Everett Collection |publisher=Alamy|access-date=22 November 2017}}

John Steed of The Avengers wore a variety of bowler hats throughout the series.[http://www.johnsteedsflat.com/bowler.html John Steed's Fashion]. See also Herbert Johnson, who made the bowler for one of the series.

Oddjob, Auric Goldfinger's manservant, uses his razor-edged bowler hat as a weapon in the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger.{{Cite episode| title = Chakram| series = Weapon Masters| credits = Hosted by Mike Loades and Chad Houseknecht| airdate = 26 October 2008| series-no= 1}}

John D. Rockerduck possesses the distinctive character trait of eating his bowler hat whenever he is defeated by Scrooge McDuck.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

J. Wellington Wimpy wears a bowler hat.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Notable comic book characters who wear bowler hats include Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan (Marvel Comics), Thomson and Thompson and Professor Calculus from The Adventures of Tintin series, and the Riddler (DC Comics).{{cite web|url=http://www.dccomics.com/characters/riddler|title=Riddler|date=19 September 2014|access-date=22 November 2017}}

Doctor King Schultz and "Butch" Pooch iconically wear wide Derby-variant bowler hats in Django Unchained.

Matthew "Stymie" Beard from the Little Rascals was always seen with a bowler hat.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} It was a gift from Stan Laurel.

In the Tom and Jerry episode "Jerry's Cousin" (1951) Jerry's cousin Muscles wears a bowler hat.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Ub Iwerks character Horace Horsecollar is seen wearing an orange bowler hat complementing his outfit with an orange horse collar.

Tom Baker wore a black bowler hat when playing the Fourth Doctor on the Doctor Who episode "Horror of Fang Rock" and Matt Smith also wore a bowler hat when playing the Eleventh Doctor on the episode "The Crimson Horror".{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

One of the villains in Illumination's 2022 movie Minions: The Rise of Gru, Jean-Clawed (played by Jean-Claude van Damme) also wears a bowler hat.

File:Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy - 1938.jpg|Laurel and Hardy, 1938.
Stan Laurel took his standard comic devices from the British music hall: the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and nonsensical understatement.{{cite book|last1=McCabe|first1=John|title=The Comedy World of Stan Laurel|date=2004|publisher=Robson|page=143}}

File:Lego Store Leicester Square London Lester 2.jpg|Lego of a classic London banker (with bowler and umbrella) at the Lego store in Leicester Square, London

File:Giant Bowler Hat.png|Giant bowler hat as roadside art in south Dallas, Texas.

File:Malcolm McDowell Clockwork Orange.png|Alex DeLarge in the dystopian film A Clockwork Orange (1971)

File:Churchill at School in Hove C. 1884 s.jpg in 1884]]

• Winston Churchill, Prime Minister during the Second World War.
• José Rizal, a Filipino patriot and national hero, wore a bowler hat before his execution by firing squad in 1896.
• The Plug Uglies, a nineteenth-century American street gang, wore bowler hats stuffed with cloth or wool to protect their heads while fighting.{{cite web|url=http://www.thehathouse.net/2013/07/the-history-of-bowler-hat-or-derby-hat.html|title=The History of the Bowler Hat or Derby Hat|website=www.thehathouse.net|access-date=22 November 2017|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201040643/http://www.thehathouse.net/2013/07/the-history-of-bowler-hat-or-derby-hat.html|url-status=dead}}
• John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, often wore a bowler hat.{{cite news|title='Stairway to Heaven': Watch a Moving Tribute to Led Zeppelin at The Kennedy Center|url=http://www.openculture.com/2013/01/moving_tribute_to_led_zeppelin_at_the_kennedy_center.html|agency=Open Culture|date=17 December 2017}}
• Edward Coke, for whom the first bowler hat was designed.
• Lou Costello of Abbott and Costello often wore a bowler hat.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}
• Laurel and Hardy are known for wearing bowler hats.{{cite web|url=http://www.laurel-and-hardy.com/|title=Laurel & Hardy – The Official Website|website=www.laurel-and-hardy.com|access-date=22 November 2017}}
• Curly Howard and Shemp Howard of The Three Stooges frequently wore bowler hats.
• Boy George often wore a bowler hat during the 1980s.{{cite book | last = Rettenmund | first = Matthew | title = Totally Awesome 80s: A Lexicon of the Music, Videos, Movies, TV Shows, Stars, and Trends of That Decedent Decade | publisher = St. Martin's Griffin | year = 1996 | page = 39 | isbn = 0-31214-436-9}}
• Dr. Peacock, Dutch DJ, music producer, label owner, event organizer and businessman.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}
• Big Bully Busick, professional wrestler, who wore a bowler hat as part of his 1920s bully gimmick.{{cite web|url=http://jenkins.cloud4.wwe.com/classics/classic-lists/15-wrestling-moves-that-really-exist/page-3|title=What a maneuver! 15 moves that really exist|author1=Linder, Zach|author2=Melok, Bobby|name-list-style=amp|publisher=WWE|accessdate=August 14, 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130814201208/http://jenkins.cloud4.wwe.com/classics/classic-lists/15-wrestling-moves-that-really-exist/page-3|archivedate=August 14, 2013}}
• Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina, frequently wore a bombín hat

• List of hat styles

{{Reflist|40em}}

• Fred Miller Robinson, The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993).
• "Whatever Became of the Derby Hat?" Lucius Beebe, Gourmet, May 1966.

• {{Commons category-inline|Bowler hats}}

{{Hats}}

{{Headgear}}

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