Iron Man

A man with iron.

Wearing a hard hat.

Ironing is a tough job and safety is important.

The builders hard hat is seen everywhere in today's safety conscious environment and rightly so, the amount of fatalities and lesser injury as dropped dramatically since the days when work wear was jeans and t shirt. If I go on building site I now have to wear gloves, safety boots, hi-viz jackets, safety glasses as well as a hard hat and that's alongside safety training and all the permits you might sign.

Hard hats were once steel but now they are rigid plastic designed to protect the head from falling object or banging your head on projecting nasty objects, essential where there is any risk, one of these saved me from nasty injury when a bolt was dropped from scaffold tower 30 foot and hit the hat, I felt a heavy bang but nothing else.

The hard hats were first worn at the very end of the 19th century in the USA who seem to have led the way in their use.

This one is quite old and probably no longer to current standards but makes a great costume prop.

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.

Reversible Acorn Hat

This medieval style acorn hat is reversible, 2 hats for one

I'm not sure why I'm pulling a odd face, some hats make me do this.

Below I'm studying the complexity of turning something inside out or outside in or perhaps outside out since both sides are the outside of the hat, who knows.

Acorn hats appeared mainly in the late 15th Century although they existed before and after this period.

The style of these hats can vary considerable both in hight and style, some are skull tight, some are comedy tall, this one fall in between.

Reversible Acorn Hat by Mike The Hat 

Viking Hat

Fur trimmed wool Viking hat

Viking hats were usually made of either wool, sheepskin, leather and fur. 

Each hat is made of 4 triangular panels sewn together to form a crown, sometimes close fitting skull cap style or looser like this one. 

They were were often trimmed with fur like this one or embroidery work. 

A medieval Icelandic law prohibited removing a hat from another person, if they did they could be fined, unless the hat had a chin strap then you could have throttled the person so the victim of the attempted hat removal could lawfully kill you in retaliation. Truth or website nonsense I'm not sure but made for a interesting fact.

This fur trimmed hat was from  Bohemia Beauty Ltd however all they show on their website is their glass object, the hat was made by the owners wife as a sideline to sell a Tewkesbury Medieval Fair.

Yes M'Lady

This a black peaked cap is one I have used as chauffeurs hat

The above photograph was taken when I chauffered my youngest brother to his wedding.

This style of hat is also associated with higher ranking British police officers, postmen but then they come with added badgers and decoration.

Time For Tea

Drinking earl grey tea from a fine bone china cup in the middle of war with the Zulu's then you need this hat.

This white Pith Helmet was used by the British Foreign Service and the British Army in the Zulu Wars. A replica of the helmet worn by the British 24th Regiment of Foot during the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879.

Made famous in the film 'Zulu' depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift where 150 soldiers fought off 4000 Zulu's.

Taller than other Pith Helmets its the origin of the British Police helmet

A Capital hat is it not

A Sombrero

A Sombrero, mexican hat, basically a very wide brimmed hat with a crown and upturned edge popular in Mexico used as a shield from the sun, these hats are wide enough to cast shadows over neck and shoulders.

This Sombrero however is possibly the worst hat I own, its made of compressed cardboard and is pure tourist tat, I'm sure if I ever got wet it would turn into paper mache. 

Well one day I'm sure I will get a better quality Sombrero but for now this is all I have.

They were also worn by cowboys and in many other Spanish speaking countries

Bucket Hat

A couple of laces make thus old bucket hat really useful in the wind.

Bucket hats probably started has practical fishemens hat in some oiled fabric, but were adopted has fashion hats in the 1960's.

Also known as session hat, fisherman's hat, or Irish country hat.

Photo above by Tom Garnett from Dark Colony Event

I've had this hat for a least 27 years as went with me to Thailand 1989 as can be seen in the photos below

My taste in clothing has got a little duller since this photo below with the very sun burnt legs to match the shorts.