Skull Past

This wool felt skull cap is one of my oldest hats

Made from 8 triangles of fabric sewn together

Now a chance to scan some old photos of me wearing the skull cap

Above me as part of mummers play

Below me in shorts at a music festival

Below me doing theatrical mediaeval reenactment at Warwick Castle

Not worn much recently, but one that got worn often.

Zucchetto Like

This skull cap is on the edge of being a zucchetto however zucchettos are typically much shallower, resting rather than clinging to the head.

The hat also does not include the little stem or cord that comes out of the centre of the hat where the panels meet.

Still, the 8 panelled cap is traditional for a zucchetto and the bright red colour makes it look a very religious hat.

Skull caps are one of those hats that don't really offer any practical use other than their aesthetic purpose.

Biretta

The Biretta is a hat that moves from the circular hat band into a 4 cornered squarish shape.

The corners are called horns, they may have 3 or 4 horns and the horns can be small like this or quite large and flamboyant.

The hats are worn by priests in the Catholic and Anglican church and also as academics hats in universities, usually denoting someone with a doctorate.

When worn by Bishops or denote ranks the hats can also get extra adornments such as pompoms.

Biretta is also optional head wear for female barristers in England and Wales.

The history of Biretta stretches back at least as far as the 10th Century.

Homburg

The Homburg hat is the hat famously worn by Winston Churchill and popular with Gangsters.

The homburg is a formal hat that started to become worn from around 1890 when people like King Edward VII wore one.

Dwight Eisenhower and Anthony Eden also famously wore the Homburg as did Al Pachino in Gangster films which resulted in gaining the nickname the Godfather

The hat is identified by a single dent running down the centre of the crown, called a gutter crown, a darker coloured band around the bottom of the crown and stiff curled up brim. 

It is a wool felt hat that usually comes in dark colour, grey is the most popular  

The hat gets its name from Bad Homburg a district in Germany where Edward VII brought the hat back to Britain from. 

I don't own a cigar, so went for the pipe for my photos.