The bowler hat, also known as a Coke hat, billycock, bob hat, or derby (United States),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is a hard felthat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849 and commissioned by Lock & Co. Hatters of St James's Street, London.<ref name="bowler history"/> It has traditionally been worn with semi-formal and informal attire.
The bowler, a protective and durable hat style, was popular with the British, Irish, and American working classes during the second half of the 19th century, and later with the middle and upper classes in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the east coast of the United States.<ref name=holkham>Template:Cite web</ref> It became the quintessential attire of City of London gents in the early 1900s, a tradition that lasted until the 1970s.<ref name="comeback"/>
The Template:Linktext hat, using a similar design to the bowler, dates (as recorded in the form "bully-cocked hat") from at least 1721.<ref>
Template:Oed - "billycock [...] A colloquial term for a round low-crowned felt hat worn by men, and sometimes also by young women."
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The archetypal bowler hat was designed in 1849 by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler to fulfill an order placed by the company of hatters James Lock & Co. of St James's,<ref name="comeback"/> which had been commissioned by a customer to design a close-fitting, low-crowned hat to protect gamekeepers from low-hanging branches while on horseback. The keepers had previously worn top hats, which were knocked off easily and damaged.<ref name="comeback"/>
The identity of the customer is less certain, with some suggesting it was Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1754–1842), who had an estate at Holkham Hall in Norfolk.<ref name=Roetzel>Roetzel, Bernhard (1999). Gentleman's Guide to Grooming and Style. Barnes & Noble.</ref> However, research performed by a younger relation of the 1st Earl casts doubtTemplate:Vague on this story, and James Lock & Co. claim that the bowler was invented for Edward Coke (1824–1889), the younger brother of Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=holkham/> When Edward Coke arrived in London on 17 December 1849 to collect his hat he reputedly placed it on the floor and stamped hard on it twice to test its strength; the hat withstood this test and Coke paid 12 shillings for it.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The bowler has had varying degrees of significance in British culture. They were popular among the working classes in the 19th century. From the early 20th century, bowler hats were more commonly associated with financial workers and businessmen working in London's financial district, the City of London, who were also known as "City gents".<ref name="comeback"/> According to The Daily Telegraph, "The hat was adopted by City workers in the early 1900s and teamed with a Template:Sic buttonhole and walking stick to give the impression of sophistication".<ref name="comeback"/> The traditional wearing of bowler hats with City business attire declined during the 1970s.<ref name="bowler history">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In modern times bowlers are not common, although the so-called City gent wearing a bowler and carrying a rolled umbrella remains a representation of Englishmen. For this reason, two bowler-hatted men were used in the logo of the British building society (subsequently bank) Bradford & Bingley.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Female officers of many British police forces also wear bowler hats as part of their uniforms. This includes a cap badge and generally has a black-and-white chequered band (called Sillitoe tartan) around the hat. Bowlers worn by female traffic police officers have white crowns or covers. These hats are not worn in the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The bowler, not the cowboy hat or sombrero, was the most popular hat in the American West, prompting Lucius Beebe to call it "the hat that won the West".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Both cowboys and railroad workers preferred the hat because it would not blow off easily in strong wind while riding a horse, or when sticking one's head out the window of a speeding train. It was worn by both lawmen and outlaws, including Bat Masterson, Butch Cassidy, Black Bart, and Billy the Kid. In the United States the hat came to be known commonly as the derby,<ref name="Roetzel" /> and American outlaw Marion Hedgepeth was commonly referred to as "the Derby Kid".
File:Schamanin.jpgThe bowler hat was introduced as part of womenswear among the Quechua and Aymara peoples of South America in the 1920s.
In South America, the bowler, known as Template:Lang in Spanish, has been worn by Quechua and Aymara women since the 1920s, when it was introduced to Bolivia by British railway workers. For many years, a factory in Italy manufactured such hats for the Bolivian market, but they are now made locally.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In Norway, Hans Majestet Kongens Garde (the royal guards) wear plumed bowler hats as part of their uniform. It was copied from the hats of the Italian Bersaglieri troops; a regiment that so impressed the Swedish princess Louise that she insisted the Norwegian guards be similarly hatted in 1860.Template:Cn
In the Philippines, bowler hats were known by its Spanish name Template:Lang (literally "mushroom hat"). Along with the native buntal hats, they were a common part of the traditional men's ensemble of the barong tagalog during the second half of the 19th century.<ref name="coo">Template:Cite thesis</ref>
The bowler hat was worn by the national hero of the Philippines, José Rizal, during his execution on 30 December 1896, and it is still seen as symbolic of the history of the Philippine Revolution.
The bowler is part of the Droog outfit that main character Alex wears in the film version of A Clockwork Orange to the extent that contemporary fancy dress costumes for this character refer to the bowler hat.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="IMDB: Clockwork Orange">Template:Cite web</ref>
There was a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, California known as The Brown Derby. The first and most famous of these was shaped like a derby.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Many paintings by the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte feature bowler hats. The Son of Man consists of a man in a bowler hat standing in front of a wall. The man's face is largely obscured by a hovering green apple. Golconda depicts "raining men" all wearing bowler hats.Template:Citation needed
Choreographer Bob Fosse frequently incorporated bowler hats into his dance routines. This use of hats as props, as seen in the 1972 movie Cabaret, would become one of his trademarks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
José Rizal, a Filipino patriot and national hero, wore a bowler hat before his execution by firing squad in 1896.
The Plug Uglies, a nineteenth-century American street gang, wore bowler hats stuffed with cloth or wool to protect their heads while fighting.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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