The Dreaded Wire Brim Hat...

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

We've all seen them... those old halloweeny hats with shapable brims filled with wire, they are certainly somethign to be dreaded, for someone trying to be historically accurate... yet as i talked to a friend about commsioning a hat made of suade, she used the words 'wire brim' and i became hesitant, but then i stoped to consider... metal wire was in supply back then was it not? (I mean around 1660-1680) could not a noble who wanted a fine hat made of suade have wire placed in the brim to shape it properly? this much i am unsure of though it makes sense as far as I can tell... so what do you think? yay or nay? are there any historical cases of wire in the brim of hats? leather or otherwise?

[Red John]

I have not researched this exhaustively, but from what I have seen, for the period hats made of leather were in the 'cap' or 'helmet-ish' style, and wide-brimmed hats were rarely if ever made of leather. I've never seen one, though again, I haven't been especially looking for one either. The leather hats most common in the literature are ones like the rifleman's cap / sailor's cap (often trimmed in fur, cloth- or wool-covered, etc., and sometimes with a turned-up brim on the front or side - not too far off from a modern baseball-ish look if the brim was not turned). There is also the dragoon helmet style, usually with a higher crown and often with a small brim on the front, not turned up (this style mostly from later than the GAoP).

Your premise about wire being available, etc., sounds reasonable, and there's no reason it couldn't be used with a wool or whatever hat for the same purpose. But I've never seen it and I tend to think it's a modern element. I'm also not sure where the broad-brimmed leather hats came from - having spent a good amount of time on both horseback, boats, and 'in the ranks', I've always thought leather one of the most impractical and uncomfortable things to make a hat out of, unless you needed it for skull protection for some reason.

Glad to hear anyone's take on the historical pedigree of wide-brimmed leather hats-

aye-

Edited January 17, 2013 by Red John