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daguerreotyping · 8 months

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Cabinet card of two gentlemen and their absolutely delightful double-walking-stick-wielding dog, c. 1890s

#look at this good boy!! this is what peak fetch performance looks like #ok so it appears to be one walking stick and one stick off a tree stick but anyway he is helping #19th century #1800s #1890s #19th century fashion #1890s fashion #men's fashion #menswear #bowler hats #fashion history #historical fashion #19th century photography #cabinet card #19th century men #vintage men

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inspectorspacetimerevisited · 10 days

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Never forget that

bowler hats are neat!

#Inspector Spacetime #Memetic Mutation (trope)#Memetic Mutation #bowler hats #are neat #bowler hats are neat #never forget

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blackswaneuroparedux · 2 years

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And Englishmen like posing as gods.

- E.M. Forster

The bowler hat used to be staple of any gentleman’s attire once upon a time. It was an obvious class signifier. Now it seems stuffy and hopelesly outdated. If it is used today it be ex-cavalrymen of the various British regiments to march in honour of the Queen.

Strange as it sounds the bowler - a symbol of city life - has it origin in the countryside back in 1849. The bowler wasn’t originally designed for style but rather for practicality. Our story starts here with the second Earl of Leicester, Sir Thomas William Coke, who owned a 25,000-acre estate called Holkham Hall, which is still the seat of the Earl of Leicester today.

His gamekeepers would ride around the grounds of the estate on horseback wearing top hats. But, because top hats are tall and cylindrical, they could easily be knocked off by wind or tree branches.

Meanwhile, his younger brother, Edward Coke, started thinking about ways that he could design a hat that was smaller, more compact, and aerodynamic, as well as being sturdier, so the gamekeepers could still have their heads covered but wouldn’t have to worry about wind, tree branches, or encounters with poachers.

He took his idea to the hatter James Lock & Co. on 25th August 25th 1849, where the chief hat maker at the time, Thomas Bowler, created the first prototype with his brother William Bowler. And the hat was definitely a success and effective as the Holkham Hall gamekeepers still use it even to this day.

Part of this hat’s history is its many names. The hat was originally known as the “Coke hat” named after the Earl, William Coke. I was fortunate to see this as evidenced by a ledger from Lock & Co. belonging to Charlie Chaplin from 1912-1922 when I accompanied my older brothers who were being outfitted for a hat for Royal Ascot.

The gamekeepers who wore the hat at Holkham Hall gave it the moniker “Billy Coke” after William Coke, which later morphed into “Billycock.” However, these are seldom used names today. So, while I’m a stickler historical detail, I would never recommend anyone walking down the street and complimenting a gentleman on their Billycock!

Be that as it may, Thomas and William Bowler started making more of these hats for the public and decided to market them under their own name as “bowler hats,” which is why this is the most common name for them today.

Lock & Co, however, does still refer to this hat style as “the Coke.” Which in its own way can cause confusion. I remember one of my brothers on his first visit for a fitting and when asked if he wanted ‘the coke’ said, no thank you I’ll take a diet Pepsi if you have one. He’s not too bright that one.

Photo: Beatrix Foulerton with her father, Major Nicholas Foulerton of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, at the annual parade of the Combines Cavalry Old Comrades. Serving and former officers of the Cavalry and Yeomanry Regiments wear bowler hats and carry closed umbrellas. It takes place in Hyde Park, London, on Cavalry Sunday, the second Sunday in May.

#forster #em forster #quote #english #cavalry #regiment #bowler hats #bowler #lock & co #british army #parade #combines old cavalry #royal scots dragoons guards #hyde park #britain #william bowler

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professorpski · 2 years

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The boy who smokes at school is bound to come to a bad end. He will degenerate gradually into a person who plays dominoes in the smoking-rooms of A.B.C. shops with friends who wear bowler hats and frock coats.

This is from The Gold Bat one of the boys’ school stories by P. G. Wodehouse from 1904 and seems to come from the mind of one of the boys who dislikes smoking as it undermines health and thus athletic ability and he is very keen on winning at sports. Wodehouse also adds that smoking surreptitiously at school means the “romance of a pipe vanishes.”

I find it intriguing because the passage makes clear that smoking was identified with bad choices in clothing, but why were they bad? were bowler hats and frock coats old-fashioned? or tacky? I am not sure exactly what Wodehouse had in mind. The A.B.C. shops were tea rooms run by the Aerated Bread Company which began as a bakery. By the 1920s, hundreds of such shops dotted England.

#menswear #Mens Fashion #mens clothing #vintage fashion #mens vintage fashion #vintage menswear #bowler hats #frock coats #smoking #the gold bat #Pg Wodehouse #ABC shops

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juliehowlin · 4 months

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Bowler Hats

While cowboys in Westerns are usually portrayed wearing a cowboy hat or sombrero, the most popular type of hat in the West at that time was actually the bowler. A bowler hat was less likely to blow off when riding a Horse in high winds.

10 things you didn't know about bowler hats:

#facts #hats #bowler hats #headgear

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frmulcahy · 9 months

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Good Omens S2 AU where everything is exactly the same except the copy of the Good Omens book that Gabriel finds is like the version that I have with little drawings at the beginning of chapters including this silly one of Crowley on the first page:

#snake with the sunglasses. iconic #Aziraphale is a little angel in a suit with a bowler hat it’s so silly I love it #good omens #good omens season 2 #good omens book #book!omens #book omens

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willyonilly · 11 months

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did you guys know i can paint too

#this is based on / a parody of “man with a bowler hat” by rene magritte #i've figured out csp i think #round mixing brush held me in its loving arms and it said shhhh shhh its all gonna be ok #i haven't done a digital painting since i was eleven #definitely some stuff i can tweak #but otherwise... love it so much #tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 fanart #tf2 medic #tf2 mercs #tf2 archimedes #archimedes #medic tf2 #team fortress medic #team fortress two #this was so fun help me

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newyorkthegoldenage · 3 months

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Raymond G. Twyefoort models the latest fashion for the American businessman—an ensemble suit featuring coat and waistcoat in the same color—in this case, mouse gray, January 30, 1929. The waistcoat is double-breasted with a low opening and is snug at the waist. Striped trousers in the same color as the coat are worn without a cuff. Black shoes with buff spats and gray bowler hat complete the look.

Photo: Associated Press via the NY Daily News

#vintage New York #1920s #men's fashion #vintage fashion #vintage men's fashion #Jan. 30 #30 Jan.#man's suit #1920s men's fashion #waistcoat #spats #bowler hat

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0l-unreliable · 3 months

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sorry if you dont take requests at all and of course ignore it if you don't but i would really love to see you draw dirkjake or brograndpa as cowboys. i would literally sob for you. /lh /pos

you know I heard a rumor going around that the Sheriff and the Judge were meeting after hours and rigging trials but I have it on pretty good authority that they actually don't even like each other