Headchange Gear

    

Bowler hat 1916

 Go to to Headchange.com to get your Derby hats!

 The Debry hat is also known as the bowler hat, the coke hat, or billycock. It 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.

The derby or bowler hat was devised in 1849 by the London hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler to fulfil an order placed by the firm of hatters (Lock & Co. of St. James’s, a company established in 1676 which is still in business). Lock & Co. had been commissioned by a customer to design a close-fitting, low-crowned hat to protect his gamekeepers’ heads from low-hanging branches while on horseback. 

It was also hoped that the new style of hat would also protect people if they were attacked by poachers or thugs. Lock & Co. then commissioned the Bowler brothers to solve the problem. The customer was Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester.

When Coke arrived in London on 17 December 1849 to collect his hat he reportedly 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. The hat was named after the customer who had ordered it, and this is most likely why the hat became became known as the “Billy Coke” or “Billycock” hat in Norfolk.

Peaking in popularity towards the end of the 19th century, the bowler hat offered a middle ground between the formality of the top hat, which was associated with the upper classes, and the casual soft flat caps worn by the working classes.

The derby hat was one of the most popular men’s hats for close to seventy years. Men began wearing derby hats rather than top hats in the 1850s and then began wearing fedora hats rather than derby hats in the 1920s. However, comedy stars Laurel and Hardy each wore derby hats throughout the 1920s and 1930s in their movies and it was their signature style. Even stores selling hats today have names for their derbies such as the Laurel and Hardy Bowler and the Laurel and Hardy derby hat. One Laurel and Hardy skit, the 1927 includes a gag that involves mixed up derby hats.

Silent film star Charlie Chaplin also wore a signature derby hate. Some women also wore derby hats even though originally they were sold as men’s hats. Women who performed in the circus or in cabarets were known to wear derby hats.