Traditional English Pork Pie (inspiration for the hat!)

History: first Perhaps the most oddly named of the hat styles, the pork pie came into fashion around 1830 on the heads of American and English women and remained en vogue through the American Civil War. In the early 1900s, this style changed gear and was seen on fashionable men about town in Britain. American men adopted the pork pie style in the 1920s thanks to silent film star Buster Keaton who wore them in many of his films. Popularity of the pork pie continued through the American Great Depression until the end of World War II (when it topped many a zoot suit). It remains popular within African American jazz, blues and ska music culture today, where it retains many of it’s ‘cool cat’ associations with the 1930s and 40s.

Characteristics:  You can pick out a pork pie hat a mile away from the shape of the crown- a round, recessed dome that looks like the crust of a traditional English Pork pie. Made of wool or straw, pork pie hats are now usually worn on the top of the head, although we do see them worn tilted backwards from time to time. The brim on a pork pie hat is traditionally the same width all the way around the hat.

Royals Associated with this Hat Style: Queen Margrethe, Japanese Imperial Royal Family. It’s not a hat shape we see often on royal heads.

Queen Margrethe in November 2004, May 2013, June 2013 and April 11, 2017

Crown Princess Masako, Apr 30, 2013; Princess Grace of Monaco in the early 1980s, Queen Elizabeth, Aug 20, 1995

Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg, Jun 23, 2016; Princess Hanako, Jan 16, 2017; Princess Alexandra, Jul 15, 2016 

What do you think of this hat with the most interesting of names?

Photos from Taylor’s Butcher; Toshifumi Kitamura via Getty; Abaca via PurePeople; Martin Høien via Billed Bladet;  Henning Bagger/Scanpix via Kongehuset;Pool/Reuters via Corbis;  unknown; Tim Graham via Getty;  The Catholic Church of Luxembourg; The Asahi Shimbun via Getty; Craig Hayes/3 Rifles