39 replies to this topic

[Guthlac]

The English Bowler Hat

In the early 20th century, men’s hats were an important element of everyday wear. They could signify status, be a fashion statement or were worn for work and warmth.

James and George Lock of James Lock and Co in London designed the Bowler hat in the 1850s for William Coke, a Norfolk landowner. Coke asked the firm to create a hard hat suitable for protecting the wearer’s head from branches when riding, and his gamekeepers from poachers. Also for when shooting tos prevent staff and shoters being hit on the head by falling birds! Coke himself may have followed the suggestion for design of the hat from his head gamekeeper.

Lock’s traditionally named their hats after the customers who commissioned them, and Coke hats are still available. Locks sent its designs to the Bowler Brothers for manufacturing, and thus the hats came to be known as Bowlers. (in America theycall our Coke/Bowler hats - Derbys.)

Traditional Coke/Bowler hats are made of felt  (made from rabbit fur) stiffened with Shellac and moulded into a bowl-shaped crown. The hats have a narrow, curved brim and are trimmed with ribbon. They came in black and brown and their were some slight alterations on styles.

The hat was immediately popular because it was seen to be less formal than the top hat, which was traditionally associated with the upper classes. They were so popular that ‘everyman’ was wearing one, from gamekeepers and landowners to city workers and coach drivers.

The hat has become a English cultural icon and was famously worn by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, the comedians Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. In Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, the only specification for costume is that all four characters wear a bowler.

The bowler hat became  a mus have element for London’s traditionally dressed City workforce, with their pinstripe suits, briefcases and umbrellas. By the 1960s this formal look had begun to disappear and by the 1980s the Coke/bowler hat was seen only rarely on the streets.

[Tennrebel]

I've allways wanted one of those but man i'd stick out like a sore thumb wearin one in Tennessee  

[Tennrebel]

i think i will get one i think i'd look sharp but what goes with it i mean can you wear it an dress casual

[Guthlac]

Tenne you get a proper Bowler hat and put some feathers in it, you would like one Americn soldiers who served in the civil war. You know the whose avater you use.


I love abolwer hat i think i want a browm one now. When i was younger used to wear al black one with a long long coat and torn leggins. (what a scruff)

Though nowdays I want a brown bowler to go with my original 1942 British Army leather jerkin. I also love mole skin trousers.


thunor i like tweed, and i think the rurel dress of the victorian age is great and well as the collerless shirts. Will have to get a good country waiste coat. Have also got a new zealand typr felt trillby, bit like a cowboy hat, as it can get to sunny in east anglia. Tribly have good pedigree. DO you ever wera a flat cap, i used too! remember the song 'black pudding bertha'

Yes it is mad, yourself, Tenne and me could dress in the fashion and traditon of our culture and people, yet we get stared while so called minorites dress up, i think in the most reidculeous clothing. An  they look at us as the odd ones out..


On must do list, get brown coke/bowler hat, country waiste coast and more mole skins and cord leggins


Go for the hat Tenne!

[Tennrebel]

i've been lookin when i get one i'll put some pictures up. hmm an maybe one of them country waist coats one things for sure if yall ever come to Tennessee yall want have any trouble spottin me   might get a pocket watch too or would be too much

[Guthlac]

Tennrebel, on Jan 20 2009, 02:14 AM, said:

i've been lookin when i get one i'll put some pictures up. hmm an maybe one of them country waist coats one things for sure if yall ever come to Tennessee yall want have any trouble spottin me   might get a pocket watch too or would be too much

That sound god mate, the pockect atch is a good idea, nothing wrong with abit of class. And dont forget the must..some straw to chew   I used to do it all the time when out in the country, relaxes the brain

[Tennrebel]

Guthlac, on Jan 20 2009, 06:22 AM, said:

That sound god mate, the pockect atch is a good idea, nothing wrong with abit of class. And dont forget the must..some straw to chew   I used to do it all the time when out in the country, relaxes the brain

well then i got a good start already a field full of straw an a pocket watch now to find a hat  

[Andy]

Nah
get a flat cap
A flat cap is a rounded men's cap with a small stiff brim in front. Cloths used to make the cap range from tweed (most common) to cotton driving caps for summer wear, sometimes featuring air vents. Less common materials may include leather

The style can be traced back to 14th century Britain and Ireland, when it was more likely to be called a 'bonnet'

When Irish and English immigrants came to America they brought the flat cap with them. A 1571 Act of Parliament to stimulate domestic wool consumption and general trade decreed that on Sundays and holidays that all males over 6 years of age, except for the nobility and persons of degree, were to wear caps of wool manufacture on force of a fine (3/4d (pence) per day). The Bill was not repealed until 1597, though by this time, the flat cap had become firmly entrenched in English psyche as a recognized mark of a non-noble subject; be it a burgher, a tradesman, or apprentice.

Flat caps were almost universally worn in the 19th century by working class men throughout Britain and Ireland, and versions in finer cloth were also considered to be suitable casual countryside wear for upper-class English men . Flat caps were worn by fashionable young men in the 1920s.

The stereotype of the flat cap as purely 'working class' was never correct. They were frequently worn in the country, but not in town, by middle and upper-class males for their practicality.  The British workman no longer commonly wears a flat cap, so in the twenty-first century, it has gained an increasingly upper class image.

[Guthlac]

All righ then i'll wear a flat cap on top of a bowler, or a bowler on top of a flat cap. I'll be prepared for any occassion! Though do nice norfolk flat cap!
Fancy making people where caps to keeps wool trade going!


Tenne, you know withnew look you will have to get a swagger stick! just a walking stick for people who have no problem walking. Just wave it around at people and use it tp keep ypu up right when you had to much grog.

[Tennrebel]

hadn't thought about a swagger stick dang i'm gonna have to start saveing up  i've had a flat cap before whan i was a kid looked good in it too thay're easier to get here but i've always wanted a bowler Laurel and Hardy were my favorite thing to watch when i was little still pretty high on my list

[Guthlac]

Tennrebel, on Jan 20 2009, 06:03 PM, said:

hadn't thought about a swagger stick dang i'm gonna have to start saveing up  i've had a flat cap before whan i was a kid looked good in it too thay're easier to get here but i've always wanted a bowler Laurel and Hardy were my favorite thing to watch when i was little still pretty high on my list

Laurel and hardy were my favorites. for a swagger stick you can just cut of any old peice of straight wood, cut to about your hip height. Let it the sap caome for abit then varnish it, even put deer or cow horn handle on. Or Just get any old lenght of wood about waist height and use it tilll it starts to wear and find another one. :

[Tennrebel]

Guthlac, on Jan 20 2009, 07:14 PM, said:

Laurel and hardy were my favorites. for a swagger stick you can just cut of any old peice of straight wood, cut to about your hip height. Let it the sap caome for abit then varnish it, even put deer or cow horn handle on. Or Just get any old lenght of wood about waist height and use it tilll it starts to wear and find another one. :

well then i'll see about makin one tomarrow prolly 2 or 3 my first of anything usually anit too pretty

[Woden's Child]

Tennrebel, on Jan 19 2009, 05:52 PM, said:

I've allways wanted one of those but man i'd stick out like a sore thumb wearin one in Tennessee  

Here's a U.S. site that sells bowler hats, with feathers in them too! Go to the link and then scroll about halfway down the page.


http://www.top-hats.us/index.html

[Guthlac]

Woden's Child, on Jan 21 2009, 12:10 PM, said:

Here's a U.S. site that sells bowler hats, with feathers in them too! Go to the link and then scroll about halfway down the page.


http://www.top-hats.us/index.html

Woden, how about you do have a a hat or hat or clothing you like?


Tene i think you beigbours ought to keep an eye on thier trees !

[Woden's Child]

Guthlac, on Jan 21 2009, 04:43 PM, said:

Woden, how about you do have a a hat or hat or clothing you like?

due to my flat top hairstyle I don't really wear hats, but when I do then it's a leather hat, similar to a stetson.

[Seaxan]

flat top..    I remember those, I used to go to the hair dressers and get one, but the next morning I could never get it to look the same. That's why a razor to my head suits me best nowadays....

[Woden's Child]

SN Admin, on Jan 21 2009, 06:59 PM, said:

flat top..    I remember those, I used to go to the hair dressers and get one, but the next morning I could never get it to look the same. That's why a razor to my head suits me best nowadays....

When I lived in Birmingham most of the English barbers (or in the case of mine, an Australian) had sold up their businesses. Most are now Asian and I wouldn't trust them to do it, mainly because most of them looked as though they were just set up overnight. You don't need any qualifications or proof of any to cut hair!  Plus, I'd rather give my money to English businesses.  Now I save money by cutting it myself. I now have it down to a fine art. Much better than any barber has ever done it.

[Penda]

I'll often cut my own - grade 1 all over, or go to the local barber, who is English & have a short back & sides. Let it grow for a bit & spike it / gel it back.

[Tennrebel]

thanks for showin me the site  Woden   i think i like the brown un best                                                                                                                                                                 aw well Guthlac what thay dont know wont hurt em    when i get it finished i'll see if i can put up a picture                                                                                                                                                                   btw i cut my own hair too one too many times of nickin my ears broke me from em