The bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby (US) or billycock,[1] 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.[2]
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The bowler hat was devised in 1849 by the London hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler to fulfill an order placed by the firm of hatters Lock & Co. of St James's. 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. The keepers had previously worn top hats, which were easily knocked off and damaged. It was also hoped that the new style of hat would protect the keepers if they were attacked by poachers. Lock & Co. then commissioned the Bowler brothers to solve the problem. While most accounts state that the customer was William Coke, a nephew of the 1st Earl of Leicester, recent research has cast some doubt on this, and it is now believed that it was instead Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester.[2]
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.[3] In accordance with Lock & Company's usual practice, the hat was called the "Coke" (pronounced “cook”) hat after the customer who had ordered it, and this is most likely why the hat became known as the "Billy Coke" or "Billycock" hat in Norfolk.
Contrary to popular belief, it was the bowler and not the cowboy hat that was the most popular hat in the American West, prompting Lucius Beebe to call it "the hat that won the West."[4]
Bowler hats, locally called a bombin, have also been worn by Quechua and Aymara women in Peru and Bolivia since the 1920s when it was introduced to Bolivia by British railway workers. For many years a factory in Italy manufactured the hats for the Bolivian market, but they are now made locally.[5]
A bowler hat is the logo of British bank, Bradford & Bingley.
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