Cork Web Articles

Bowler hats always have images associated with them. Whether it is office workers in the City of London or Orangemen in Northern Ireland, the images are powerful ones.

The bowler hat dates back to 1849. The design was commissioned by a man named William Coke in England. His gamekeepers (which tells you a small bit about the man) kept banging their heads on overhanging branches while they were riding through his forest in their top hats.

He wanted a hat that was lower than a top hat, but that would offer some protection against bruises while riding alonf wooded paths. The result was the bowler hat.

Throughout history hats for men have been badges of status. In the 19th and 20th Century and working class men in England would wear a flat cap, middle class men such as supervisors, bankers and office workers would wear a bowler hat and the gentry would wear top hats.

There are now many different kinds of hats but few men wear a hat except for special occasions.

Particular groups tend to wear particular hats as a badge or label. Orangmen in Northern Ireland still wear bowler hats on parades. This dates back to the time when all the foremen and supervisors were protestants and they wore a bowler as a mark of their status, rather than their religion. The bowler hat meant they were easy to pick out in a crowd or at a distance.

Musicians favou porkpie hats and jazz fans like to wear fedora hats.

Bowler hats are now fashion items for women, both in traditional black, but many other colours, too.

You will often see cheap bowler hats for sale in the run up to St Patrick’s Day parades in America. Bowlers are not worn in Irish Paddy’s Day parades, perhaps because of its association with the Orange Order in Northern Ireland.