Slouch Hat

A slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt hat with a chinstrap most commonly worn as part of a military uniform. The distinctive Australian slouch hat has one side of the brim turned up or pinned to the side of the hat in order to allow a rifle to be slung over the shoulder. While this style of hat did not originate in Australia, it has become associated with the Australian military since World War I, when it was manufactured by the Akubra company for the army. This slouch hat is still worn by the Australian military today.

The slouch hat is also associated with the Gurkha regiments of the British Army and Indian Army (formerly the British Indian Army) and is still worn by the Gurkhas but is not worn on active service anymore. The 2nd Gurkha Rifles were the first Gurkha regiment to adopt the hat. The Gurkha hat is created by the fusion of two hats into one to make the hat more rigid and is worn at at angle, tilted to the right.

The Chindits and other units of the British Fourteenth Army who fought against the Japanese in the Far East during the Second World War also became associated with the slouch hat (which is also known as the bush hat in the British Army). The slouch hat was also used by a number of units in the British Empire, including the Royal West African Frontier Force.

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The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/slouch_hat  5/13/05

A Wide-Brimmed Felt Hat Built Around a Rifle

The slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt hat with a chinstrap, most commonly worn as part of a military uniform. Each element of that short description serves military wear. A wide brim on a felt hat gives a soldier a broad, soft-edged covering as part of his uniform, the chinstrap keeps that wide-brimmed hat in place on the head, and felt provides a hat body suited to being formed and worn as issued uniform headgear. The Australian form then adds the detail that makes the slouch hat instantly recognisable: one side of the brim turned up or pinned to the side of the hat. The reason is equipment, not decoration. The brim is turned up in order to allow a rifle to be slung over the shoulder, because a wide brim left down on that side would be in the way of the slung rifle and its movement.

That turned-up side is therefore a piece of practical design that became an emblem. A uniform feature adopted to clear a rifle ends up identifying the soldier at a glance, because the asymmetric brim, down on one side and up on the other, appears in no ordinary civilian hat. The style did not originate in Australia, yet it has become associated with the Australian military since World War I, when it was manufactured by the Akubra company for the army. Association of that kind is earned through use at scale in a defining period: a hat issued to an army in a world war, made by a named Australian maker for that army, becomes linked with that country's forces in public memory. The slouch hat is still worn by the Australian military today, so the association is a continuing one rather than only a memory of World War I.

Gurkha, Chindit, and Empire Service

Australia is the strongest association, but not the only one. The slouch hat is also associated with the Gurkha regiments of the British Army and Indian Army, formerly the British Indian Army, and is still worn by the Gurkhas, though it is not worn on active service anymore. The 2nd Gurkha Rifles were the first Gurkha regiment to adopt the hat, giving the Gurkha connection a specific starting point within its regiments. The Gurkha hat is created by the fusion of two hats into one to make the hat more rigid, and it is worn at an angle, tilted to the right. That construction is a genuine variation on the type rather than a mere difference of badge: fusing two hats into one changes the stiffness of the finished hat, and the tilted wear gives Gurkha slouch hats their own recognisable set, distinct from the Australian turned-up brim.

Wartime service in the Far East added a further association. The Chindits and other units of the British Fourteenth Army who fought against the Japanese in the Far East during the Second World War also became associated with the slouch hat, which is also known as the bush hat in the British Army. The bush hat name suits the same wide-brimmed felt hat in that theatre, where it was part of the appearance of forces fighting far from Europe. The slouch hat was also used by a number of units in the British Empire, including the Royal West African Frontier Force, so its service was empire-wide rather than confined to one army. Reading a slouch hat correctly therefore means holding its shared form and its local variations together: wide brim, felt, and chinstrap as the common base; the Australian brim turned up for a slung rifle and made by Akubra since World War I; the Gurkha version fused from two hats, more rigid, and tilted to the right; and the bush hat name carried by British Fourteenth Army units in the Far East in the Second World War.