The Basics
Although associated in the modern mind with City gents carrying furled umbrellas to work, the bowler hat was once much more widely seen in society. It was worn by all classes of men, from street traders to gamekeepers, an indication of its genuinely practical nature.
Famous bowler-wearers since that time have included Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Samuel Beckett's characters in Waiting For Godot, and the sinister gang of thugs portrayed in Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange.
