Hat & Headwear Definitions — hats, caps, helmets and headwear terms from Apparel Search
A pork pie hat, or trilby, is a felt hat, dating from the middle 18th century, much the same as a fedora, but with a flattened top. It gets its name from its resemblance to a pork pie. The brim on a pork pie hat is generally on the smaller side, and is worn up, though it can be worn down in the front, and the hats come in straw varieties as well.
Pork pie hats are often associated with jazz culture, though more recently they have had strong associations with ska.
Ska is a style of fast popular music having a strong offbeat and originating in Jamaica in the 1960s, a forerunner of reggae.
In Britain they were popularized in the 1960s Rude Boy movement in Britain; then later adopted by the skinheads. The Pork-Pie was a staple of the British Man-About-Town for many years, before its association with any particular youth subculture.
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pork_pie_hat 5/17/05 |
The quickest way to place the pork pie hat is by its nearest relative. A pork pie hat, or trilby, is a felt hat, much the same as a fedora, but with a flattened top. That single difference carries the identification: where a fedora's crown is shaped, the pork pie's top is flattened, giving the hat a level, compact profile. The name then makes the shape memorable, because the hat gets its name from its resemblance to a pork pie. Food names for hats work when the comparison is instantly seen, and a flattened round top on a brimmed felt hat gives exactly the visual the name promises. Dating from the middle 18th century, the pork pie is therefore an old form that has repeatedly returned to fashion rather than a recent invention, and each return has brought the same defining features with it.
The brim completes the picture and allows a small measure of personal adjustment. The brim on a pork pie hat is generally on the smaller side, and is worn up, though it can be worn down in the front. A smaller brim keeps the hat's proportions compact, in keeping with the flattened top, and wearing it up as the general rule gives the hat its neat, turned-up outline. Turning it down in front is the recognised variation, changing the line at the face without changing the hat itself. Material offers the other main variation: the hats are felt as a rule, but they come in straw varieties as well, so the same flattened-top, small-brim form can be had in the felt version that defines the type and in a straw version built on the same shape.
The pork pie was a staple of the British Man-About-Town for many years, before its association with any particular youth subculture. That order of events matters for understanding the hat's image. It began its modern life as established, fashionable town wear, the hat of a man dressing with care for social life, and only later acquired sharper group associations. A hat with that kind of established history can be adopted by a movement without losing its older identity, because both layers remain visible: the respectable staple underneath, and the subculture signal on top. The pork pie's flattened top and small upturned brim stayed the same through both lives, which is why the same hat can appear convincingly in such different settings.
Music gave the hat its best-known later associations. Pork pie hats are often associated with jazz culture, and more recently they have had strong associations with ska. Ska is a style of fast popular music having a strong offbeat, originating in Jamaica in the 1960s, and a forerunner of reggae. In Britain the hats were popularized in the 1960s Rude Boy movement, and then later adopted by the skinheads. That sequence, jazz, then ska and the Rude Boy movement, then the skinheads, shows a hat passing from one music-linked group to the next, each adoption renewing its visibility while keeping its form unchanged. For identification the essentials do not depend on which association a particular wearer intends: a felt hat, or a straw variety, much like a fedora but with a flattened top, a generally small brim worn up or down in front, named for its resemblance to a pork pie. The associations explain why the hat is seen; the shape is how it is known.
A pork pie hat is much the same as a fedora, but with a flattened top. That flattened top, rather than a shaped fedora crown, is the main difference between the two felt hats.
It gets its name from its resemblance to a pork pie. The flattened top and the form of the hat reminded wearers of the pie, and the food name stayed with the hat.
The brim on a pork pie hat is generally on the smaller side, and is worn up, though it can be worn down in the front. The hats are felt as a rule, but they come in straw varieties as well.