Flat cap

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Woollen flat cap worn by actor Jason Isaacs (2005) Jason at golf.jpg
Woollen flat cap worn by actor Jason Isaacs (2005)

A flat cap is a rounded cap with a small stiff brim in front, originating in Northern England. The hat is also known in Ireland as a paddy cap; in Scotland as a bunnet; in Wales as a Dai cap; and in the United States as an English cap or Irish cap. Various other terms exist (scally cap, [1] cabbie cap, driver cap, golf cap, [2] longshoreman cap, ivy cap, jeff cap, [3] train engineer cap, sixpence, etc.) Flat caps are usually made of tweed, plain wool, or cotton, while some are made using leather, linen, or corduroy. The inside of the cap is commonly lined for comfort and warmth. [4]

Contents

History

Woolen flat cap Batschkapp (fcm).jpg
Woolen flat cap
Flat cap, side view, herringbone pattern Flat-cap.jpg
Flat cap, side view, herringbone pattern

The style can be traced back to the 16th century in Northern England, when it was more likely to be called a "bonnet". This term was replaced by "cap" before about 1700, [5] except in Scotland, where it continues to be referred to as a bunnet in Scots. [6]

A 1571 Act of the English Parliament was enacted to stimulate domestic wool consumption and general trade. It decreed that on Sundays and holidays, all males over 6 years of age, except for the nobility and "persons of degree", were to wear woolen caps or pay a fine of three farthings per day (equivalent to £1.41in 2023). [7] The Act was not repealed until 1597, though by then the flat cap had become firmly entrenched as a recognised mark of a non-noble person[ citation needed ], such as a burgher, a tradesman, or an apprentice.[ dubious discuss ] The style may have been the same as the Tudor bonnet still used in some styles of academic dress.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when men predominantly wore some form of headgear, flat caps were commonly worn throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Versions in finer cloth were also considered to be suitable casual countryside wear for upper-class Englishmen. Flat caps were worn by fashionable young men in the 1920s. Boys of all classes in the United Kingdom wore caps during this period; a peaked school cap of prescribed colour and design, of more rounded shape than men's flat caps, was part of the normal school uniform. [8]

The flat cap made its way to southern Italy in the late 1800s, likely brought by British servicemen. In Turkey, the flat cap became the main headgear for men after it became a replacement for the fez, which was banned by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1925. [9]

In the early part of the 20th century it was worn by working class men in Spain and it became part of the traditional attire and folklore of Madrid where it is called parpusa  [ es ], gorra madrileña, or "Madrid Cap".

In British popular culture, the flat cap (or "flat hat") is typically associated with Yorkshire, and more broadly, working-class men. The flat cap can also be taken to denote the upper class when affecting casualness. "A toff can be a bit of a chap as well without, as it were, losing face." [10] In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, British public figures including David Beckham, Nigel Mansell, Guy Ritchie, Richard Blackwood, and Charles III wore the flat cap. [11]

In Northern England, notable wearers include: Fred Dibnah, from Bolton; comic strip anti-hero Andy Capp, from Hartlepool, and AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson, of Newcastle, customarily wears a flat cap frequently on and off stage. [12] [13]

In Peaky Blinders , a BBC television show about a former Birmingham-based gang, characters are seen wearing Baker Boy Caps, a similar style often confused for flat caps. It was thought, and adapted, that the gang had sewed-in razor blades on the peak of their flat caps for use as a weapon to blind their enemies. [14]

Usage in the East End of London is illustrated by Jim Branning of the television soap opera EastEnders and Del Boy Trotter of Only Fools and Horses . Taxicab and bus drivers are often depicted wearing a flat cap, as comedically portrayed by Gareth Hale and Norman Pace's (Hale and Pace) "London cabbies" television sketches.

Modern popularity

Dick Berggren is known for wearing a flat cap. DickBerggren.jpg
Dick Berggren is known for wearing a flat cap.
The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was known for wearing flat caps. Pablo Neruda - BCN.jpg
The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was known for wearing flat caps.

The style has remained popular among groups of people in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and North America. The cap is sometimes associated with older men, significantly in South Korea, but has been popular (along with the newsboy cap) among some segments of younger people, for example, in cities such as Chicago, Boston, New York, and Scranton with large Irish-American populations. It has appeared in the hip hop subculture, sometimes worn back-to-front or cocked to the side. It is also very common among men and women in San Francisco, California. In Turkey, it is highly popular amongst men, mostly working-class.

The English rugby league team Featherstone Rovers supporters' nickname is "the Flat Cappers", because supporters in years gone by attended matches wearing them as did most other teams' supporters.[ citation needed ]

The black leather flat cap is often combined with a patched-up sport coat or leather jacket and dark clothes (sometimes combined with a bee-striped convict's shirt) in popular culture to depict a burglar, mugger, or robber, occasionally with a domino mask.[ citation needed ] The comic book character the Goon is based on this archetype of the flat-capped street tough from vintage cartoons and comics.[ citation needed ]

American golfer Bryson DeChambeau wears a flat cap during his rounds on the PGA Tour in honor of the late Payne Stewart and Ben Hogan. The look has rejuvenated popularity with the style amongst younger golfers. [ citation needed ]

The Canadian team in the 1998 Winter Olympics wore red flat caps designed by Roots in the opening ceremony parade of nations. [15] The US team in the 2008 Summer Olympics also wore white flat caps designed by Polo Ralph Lauren during the parade of nations. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knit cap</span> Headwear

A knit cap, colloquially known as a beanie, is a piece of knitted headwear designed to provide warmth in cold weather. It usually has a simple tapered shape, although more elaborate variants exist. Historically made of wool, it is now often made of synthetic fibers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baseball cap</span> Type of soft, billed hat

A baseball cap is a type of soft hat with a rounded crown and a stiff bill projecting in front.

A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head covering". Over time, the word has evolved and changed its meaning, but it still retains its association with headwear. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal settings, and are seen in sports and fashion. They are typically designed for warmth, and often incorporate a visor to block sunlight from the eyes. They come in many shapes, sizes, and are of different brands. Baseball caps are one of the most common types of cap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hat</span> Shaped head covering, having a brim and a crown, or one of these

A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mechanical features, such as visors, spikes, flaps, braces or beer holders shade into the broader category of headgear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beret</span> Flat-topped, visorless cap

A beret is a soft, round, flat-crowned cap made of hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, wool felt, or acrylic fibre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonnet (headgear)</span> Large semicircular head covering framing the face; alternatively, a brimless hat or cap

Bonnet has been used as the name for a wide variety of headgear for females-from the Middle Ages to the present. As with "hat" and "cap", it is impossible to generalize as to the styles for which the word has been used, but there is for both sexes a tendency to use the word for styles in soft material and lacking a brim, or at least one all the way round, rather than just at the front. Yet the term has also been used, for example, for steel helmets. This was from Scotland, where the term has long been especially popular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newsboy cap</span> Headgear similar to a flat cap

The newsboy cap, newsie cap, jeff cap, or baker boy hat (British) is a casual-wear cap similar in style to the flat cap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tam o' shanter (cap)</span> Traditional Scottish bonnet

A tam o' shanter or "tammie" is a name given to the traditional Scottish bonnet worn by men. The name derives from Tam o' Shanter, the eponymous hero of the 1790 Robert Burns poem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glengarry</span> Traditional Scots headgear

The Glengarry bonnet is a traditional Scots cap made of thick-milled woollen material, decorated with a toorie on top, frequently a rosette cockade on the left side, and ribbons hanging behind. It is normally worn as part of Scottish military or civilian Highland dress, either formal or informal, as an alternative to the Balmoral bonnet or Tam o' Shanter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caubeen</span> Irish beret

The caubeen is an Irish beret, originally worn by 16th-century Irish men. It has been adopted as the head dress of Irish regiments of Commonwealth armies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workwear</span> Clothing that is worn in the exercise of a service profession, a craft or an engineering profession

Workwear is clothing worn for work, especially work that involves manual labour. Often those employed within trade industries elect to be outfitted in workwear because it is built to provide durability and safety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coppola cap</span> Flat cap traditional to Sicily and Calabria

The coppola is a traditional kind of flat cap typically worn in Sicily, Campania and Calabria, where is it known as còppula or birritta, and also seen in Malta, Greece, some territories in Turkey, Corsica, and Sardinia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1900s in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion in the decade 1900–1909

Fashion in the period 1900–1909 in the Western world continued the severe, long and elegant lines of the late 1890s. Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles. A new, columnar silhouette introduced by the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signaled the approaching abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sailor cap</span> Hat worn by enlisted Naval personnel

A sailor cap is a round, flat visorless hat worn by sailors in many of the world's navies. A tally, an inscribed black silk ribbon, is tied around the base which usually bears the name of a ship or a navy. Many navies tie the tally at the rear of the cap and let the two ends hang down to the shoulders as decorative streamers. In the Royal Navy the tally is tied off in a bow over the left ear and in the early 20th century it was customary when going on shore leave to tie a small coin in the bow to make it stand out. In wartime, as a security measure, many navies replace the name of the ship with a generic title. The cap may be further embellished with a badge, cockade or other accessory. Visorless caps of this kind began to be worn in the mid 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Headgear</span> Any covering for the head; element of clothing which is worn on ones head

Headgear, headwear, or headdress is any element of clothing which is worn on one's head, including hats, helmets, turbans and many other types. Headgear is worn for many purposes, including protection against the elements, decoration, or for religious or cultural reasons, including social conventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arakhchin</span> Armenian headdress

An arakhchi is a traditional Armenian and Azerbaijani flat top skull cap headdress, worn by both men and women in the past.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peaky Blinders</span> Criminal gang in Birmingham, England

The Peaky Blinders were a street gang based in Birmingham, England, which operated from the 1880s until the 1920s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to working-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, racketeering, illegal bookmaking, and control of gambling. Members wore signature outfits that typically included tailored jackets, lapelled overcoats, buttoned waistcoats, silk scarves, bell-bottom trousers, leather boots, and flat caps. Contrary to the television series of the same name, it is unlikely that they had razor blades sewn into these caps, instead gaining their name from the way they wore them with the cap tilted so that the peak covered one eye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela hat</span> Straw hat

The Chapeau à la Paméla, Pamela hat or Pamela bonnet described a type of straw hat or bonnet popular during the 1790s and into the first three quarters of the 19th century. It was named after the heroine of Samuel Richardson's 1741 novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. While Pamela hats and bonnets underwent a variety of changes in shape and form, they were always made from straw. The mid-19th-century version of the Pamela hat was a smaller version of an early 19th-century wide-brimmed style called the gipsy hat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue bonnet</span> Type of soft woollen hat

The blue bonnet was a type of soft woollen hat that for several hundred years was the customary working wear of Scottish labourers and farmers. Although a particularly broad and flat form was associated with the Scottish Lowlands, where it was sometimes called the scone cap, the bonnet was also worn in parts of Northern England and became widely adopted in the Highlands.

References

  1. "Scally Origins | Boston Scally Co. | Caps & Hoodies". Boston Scally. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  2. 7 Gotta-Have Golf Hats for Tee Time. Retrieved June 10, 2023
  3. "jeff cap, n. meanings, etymology and more | Oxford English Dictionary". www.oed.com. Archived from the original on 2024-10-07. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  4. "Factories, Farms and Financial Success - A history of the Flat Cap". Sir Gordon Bennett. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  5. "Bonnet" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  6. Mairi Robinson, ed. (1985). The Concise Scots Dictionary. Aberdeen University Press. p. 53. ISBN   0-08-028491-4.
  7. O'Grady, Sean (27 March 2010). "Minor British Institutions: The flat cap". The Independent. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  8. "English school uniform garments: headwear". Historical Boys' Clothing. 9 October 2017.
  9. "fez". Britannica Kids. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  10. Mather, Geoffrey. "Capped for England" BBC Radio 4, 2001.
  11. Porter, Richard (4 November 2016). "If you want to get ahead, get a flat cap". The Daily Telegraph.
  12. Katie Wales (2006). Northern English: a cultural and social history. p. 26. Cambridge University Press ISBN   9781139457057
  13. Anthony Bozza (2009). Why AC/DC Matters. p.54. HarperCollins, Retrieved 30 November 2011 ISBN   9780061804601
  14. Griffiths, Eleanor (2019-07-19). "Where does the name Peaky Blinders come from?". RadioTimes. Immediate Media Company Limited. Retrieved 2019-11-17. The TV series suggests that the gang are called "Peaky Blinders" because they use the razors in their hats to blind their enemies, either by slicing the blade across their victims' eyes or by slashing up their faces so much that they are blinded by blood.
  15. Photos from 1998 Nagano Olympics Opening Ceremony from Canadian Olympic Committee official website.
  16. Plante, Chandler (14 July 2021), Team USA's Most Iconic Olympic Outfits Throughout the Years Are Pure Gold, popsugar.co.uk