Walking the dog, in the pub, collecting the kids from school, on your bike, but never indoors, the Flat cap is probably the most traditional form of headwear that British men, aged 30-60, love to sport.
Once, the flat cap was the standard headgear of the working-class man, while middle-class men opted for the trilby, and the bowler was the almost compulsory uniform of the gentleman in the City of London.
Few Englishmen nowadays wear any sort of hat. The flat cap - extended beyond its original social range - is the only one which has really survived.
'The style can be traced back to the 14th century in Northern England namely Grimsby and parts of Southern Italy, when it was more likely to be called a "bonnet", which term was replaced, except in Scotland, by "cap" before about 1700'[1]
Once, the flat cap was the standard headgear of the working-class man, while middle-class men opted for the trilby, and the bowler was the almost compulsory uniform of the gentleman in the City of London.
Few Englishmen nowadays wear any sort of hat. The flat cap - extended beyond its original social range - is the only one which has really survived.
'The style can be traced back to the 14th century in Northern England namely Grimsby and parts of Southern Italy, when it was more likely to be called a "bonnet", which term was replaced, except in Scotland, by "cap" before about 1700'[1]
