Does it ring a bell? The Pork Pie Hat
It is a chapeau seen many times, on the heads of hipsters, musicians, and cinema fictional characters, the one called pork pie hat. It has an indented round, flat top, and a short brim the same width all around, sometimes slightly rolled up. Occasionally, a feather adornment is on the side. Mostly we see it worn by men, but women were the original wearers of the pork pie hat centuries ago.
The name origin comes from a pastry dish resemblance, the Melton Mowbray pork pie, in the Leicestershire area of England. Men started wearing the hat in the late 1800s and made them quite popular at tennis matches and polo. The hat became a signature piece for some early silent movie actors in the 1920s, but jazz musicians made it fashionable in the 40s and 50s.
Lester Young, an outstanding jazz saxophonist and member of the Count Basie orchestra, wore the hat at his performances. He was so identified with the accessory that when he passed, well known composer and bandleader, Charles Mingus, composed a musical elegy in Young’s honor called “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.”
Other trendsetters have been movie and television actors, such as, The Honeymooners Art Carney as neighbor Ed Norton and Gene Hackman in The French Connection as Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle. Norton wore the hat with an everyday-man style, while Popeye gave the hat a grit and aggressive imagery. Closer to home, in Puerto Rico, the actor responsible for showing cartoons daily to children at 4 pm on Cine Recreo, Pacheco (Joaquín Monserrat), unfailingly wore a classic pork pie hat as part of the hosting uniform. And not to forget, “yabaa dabba doo,” Yogi Bear, donning the hat with unique style.
Who are the contemporary pork pie hat trendsetters? Brad Pitt with a scruffy face? Hipsters styling memory lane? Jazz musicians? Yes, to the aforementioned and more. Look around, the hat has history, endurance, and swag. A word of advice, people with full round faces should stay away from the look. Pork pie hats, probably more popular today than the original dish!
Sources
https://realizemagazine.com/category/wear-0
https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2019/03/true-pork-pie-hat.html
http://www.historyofhats.net/hat-history/pork-pie-hat/