The pork pie hat is a men’s dress hat with a round crown and thin brim, available in various colors and patterns. It originated in the mid-19th century and is associated with subcultures like rude boys and jazz musicians. Buster Keaton often wore it in his films.
A pork pie hat is a men’s dress hat that resembles a fedora, but has a thinner brim and a short, flat, round crown with a notch all the way around. Most of these hats are felt, but straw styles also exist. They’re available in just about any color imaginable, as well as patterned styles, though black, gray, and brown are the most common. As with many men’s dress hats, a wide ribbon around the crown and a feather on the side are common accessories.
The pork pie hat originated in the mid-19th century, when it was worn by American cowboys before the Stetson hat became popular. However, the term originally referred to a feminine style from the same era. The hat is so named because its shape resembles a pork pie.
Certain subcultures are associated with the pork pie hat, notably the rude boy culture that originated in 1960s Jamaica, and ska, the type of music that grew out of it. Jazz and blues musicians and fans can rock the style as well. Thelonius Monk, Lester Young, and Outkast’s Andre 3000 have been known to wear this style of hat. Musician Charles Mingus wrote a saxophone piece dedicated to the memory of Lester Young entitled “Goodbye Pigsfoot Hat”. It’s also a common fashion accessory for anyone with a retro look, often worn with a suit or bowling shirt.
In the early 20th century, the pork pie hat, along with the newer fedora, was a more popular style, as hats in general were a staple of men’s fashion. Silent film star Buster Keaton often appeared in this type of hat in his films. In the 1940s, he was associated with physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who helped develop the atomic bomb, so much so that an image of the hat atop physics equipment appearing in a 1948 edition of Physics Today is understood to refer to him. .
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