Crewe Steampunk Convivial

Last weekend I visited Crewe Steampunk Convivial and dressed up for the visit including a greeny brown Derby hat

Posing by traction engine

Equipped with basic goggles since when your zooming about at speeds over 5 mph on these steam monsters you could get eye damage.

Crewe Steampunk Convivial was a jolly good day out, but I missed most of the entertainment, this was the first event in Crewe of its kind I understand and perhaps needs a little more work to grow into something good, the set up was very dis-jointed, no signs, no timetables, however if they try again I will probably go again. 

This hat was found at a car boot sale.

Now I'm British so perhaps I should say I was wearing a Bowler Hat, but see my previous post here if you want to know why its a Derby.

Bowler or Derby

I was recently informed my Bowler hat was in fact a Derby, now I always believed Bowler, Derby and its many other names Coke Hat, Boxer, Billy Cock, were all names for the same thing and for all useful purpose bar riding they still are.

The Bowler was first made and designed in 1850 by William Bowler for Sir William Coke for head protection when riding. The Derby got its name when the 12th Earl of Derby visited the United States in a hat of this style in 1880 and created a fashion there, so could be classed as the America name for Bowler.

Anyway if your looking for a difference a Bowler is hard and rigid, while the dome of the Derby Hat can be bent easily with the fingers, both are the same shape. 

This hat is therefore a derby bowler.

All fashionable goblins (above) wear bowler hats as do steampunk man servants (below)