The Bowler Hat: Britain’s Most Iconic Gentleman’s Hat
The Bowler hat is a classic of fine English headwear. Generally in black, it is a hard, domed hat with small curled or flat brim, it started life as a riding hat developed for gamekeepers for the ‘hunt’, in 1849. By the 20th century was the hat of professionals, from bank managers, to lawyers and accountants. Less formal than the Top Hat and really the Homburg too, it is still worn for formal, military occasions.
With the immigration across the pond, the bowler became know as the Derby or Brown Derby in America, also the English Bowler (which has a higher crown and smaller brim than ours).
or Billycock, is a hard Felt Hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester.
History
The bowler hat was developed in 1849. When the 1st Earl of Leicester saw his gamekeepers while hunting one day, he saw the impracticality of wearing such high hats while riding, at speed, through low hanging branches; they were quick to get damaged, expensive, and it must be said, he probably wanted less grand headwear more suited to their status to differentiate between his staff and himself and friends partaking of the Hunt.
Famously, he set his nephew, Edward Coke to the task, who went to the most famous hatters of then and now, Lock & Co. to develop a shorter crowned riding hat, more befitting of a gamekeeper who would be dodging low hanging branches while to horse.
The Bowler brothers came up with what we know as the ‘Bowler’ Hat, and famously, when Coke went to collect the hat, he put it on the floor and stamped on it twice to see if it would stand up to heavy abuse. The hat survived and Coke handed over 12 shillings. Locks often call a hat after the person who commissioned it and so for a time the hat was known as a ‘Coke’ or ‘Coker’, also the ‘Billycock’.
The Bolivian and Peruvian Bowler Hat is know as a Bombin, worn there by the Quechua and Aymara women. Of course, the hat was taken there by British railway workers, though it is uncertain why it was adopted by the women and not the men. For a time, their bowlers were made in Italy, but now are made locally. Their version is a much taller hat, with some decoration on the ribbon and is not traditionally black, It is also worn much smaller, so that it perches on the head.
The Bowler was immortalised by Arthur Lowe in Dad’s Army in the 60s, but shows how important as a status piece it was around the 1930s and 40s. It was the epitome of style and suave sophistication when worn by John Steed in The Avengers. It is regretful that it fell out of fashion in the 70s when a less formal attitude to the workplace became more prevalent.
Thankfully, the Bowler has made a comeback, though I suspect tourists to England still expect us all to be wearing them when they come to London, it is a great souvenir being as English as the breakfast. As with many Vintage Hat styles, the rise of vintage or ‘Chap’ style has led to a renaissance for the Bowler.
