Bowler hat
A melon is a rigid, rounded hat , the first time in 1849 in Southwark , London , was made by the hatters Thomas and William Bowler and in the English-speaking world after its inventors usually bowler 's. Sometimes he is referred to there as Billycock . In German he was also called Eiersieder, Hartmann, Glocke or Koks (among traveling companions ) or Göggs (Switzerland). In the USA it was also called Derby after Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby , who always wore a gray bowler to horse races. The original bowler hat is made of black felt and has a stiff brim . Originally, the stiffness was achieved with the help of shellac . Outside of England it is only worn very rarely, except for horse races (by the public) and dressage riders. Instead, the Homburg is preferred.
Bibi is the name of a melon that is mainly worn in Cologne Carnival .
History and dissemination
Coke, an English landowner, ordered a hat for his game warden from the milliner James Lock in London's posh St. James's . It should be low, stable and sit firmly on the head, as the top hat worn by staff was repeatedly knocked off by branches while riding. It is widely believed that this Coke landowner was Thomas William Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester , which is not the case. In the meantime, however, it remains disputed whether the client was a William Coke, cousin of the Earl of Leicester, or his younger brother Edward Coke.
Thomas and William Bowler, hat makers in Southwark, then made a first model based on the design by Lock. It spread quickly. Soon the Bowler company had to produce around 60,000 hats a year. In the USA it was a popular headgear among cowboys and railroad workers and it was the hallmark of many well-known figures of the "Wild West" such as Butch Cassidy and Billy the Kid . Introduced in Bolivia in the 1920s by British railroad workers, a type of bowler is still worn by Bolivian Indian women ( cholitas ) today . The bowler was a form of workwear for city London bankers in the 1950s and 1960s. In Northern Ireland the bowler is worn on official occasions by representatives of the pro-British unionists .
The bowler hat is considered a typical English headdress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also became the trademark of early comedians such as Charlie Chaplin , Laurel and Hardy and Billy Bevan . In the second half of the century, the fictional characters Pan Tau , Egon Olsen , John Steed , Alexander DeLarge and Cornelius Fudge recalled the hat to a younger generation long after its fashion. In the case of an illegal method used by debt collection companies to warn debtors who are supposed to publicly expose them, they are accompanied at every turn by a "black shadow" person with a bowler hat. Clowns and artists use the hat as a juggling object .
Even today, the bowler hat is part of the mandatory work clothing of Viennese Fiaker drivers .
literature
- Ingrid Loschek : Reclam's fashion and costume lexicon. 5th edition Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-010577-3 , p. 128.
- NJ Stevenson: The History of Fashion. Styles, trends and stars. Haupt, Bern u. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-258-60032-1 , pp. 40 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ So Loschek: Reclam's fashion and costume lexicon. 5th edition 2005, p. 128.
- ↑ See The history of the Bowler hat at Holkham (PDF)
- ^ Ordinance of the Viennese provincial government regarding the operating rules for Fiaker and horse rental car companies (Operating rules for Fiaker and horse rental car companies 2000)