Flat cap

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A flat cap, also variously called a cloth cap, bunnet, golf cap, driving cap, ivy cap, derby cap, windsor cap, or scally cap, and sometimes called a cheese-cutter in New Zealand and Canada, or a sixpence in Norway, is a round, soft men's cap with a small brim in front and a somewhat stiff peak in the back. The material is usually wool or tweed.

flat cap

The style can be traced all the way back to fourteenth century England. In its current style the caps were worn in the nineteenth century by working-class men, and it was considered casual country wear by well-to-do English men; hence the alternate name "golf cap". Boys in Great Britain and North America of all classes wore this cap in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the popular image of the cap is its being worn by "newsboys". Cloth caps were worn by fashionable young men in the 1920s. In British popular culture the flat cap is associated with working class men in northern England, as personified by the legend that was Fred Dibnah -- and, of course, comic strip anti-hero Andy Capp.

The style has remained popular among certain people in Europe and America. Today it is sometimes associated with old men, but has been revived occasionally among younger people, particularly SHARP Skinheads and those who associate with the punk and Oi music scenes. Some celebreties such as AC/DC singer Brian Johnson and comedian Dave Chappelle have created distinctive styles with the flat cap. Some men, most notably actor Samuel L. Jackson, began wearing flat caps backwards in the 1990s. Women have recently adopted the cap as well.

Most recently, it has started to go by the name Koby Cap.

See also Gatsby cap.

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