Fireman's Helmet

Fighfighters helmets were introduced in the 1830's to help protect them against falling cinders and debris

The firefighter's helmet was originally made of leather, then brass, then cork, then steel, then aluminium, then thermoplastic, then a composite of all sorts of materials each adding different protection against hazard a modern firefighter might face 

In the 1930's as electricity became a hazard so brass was abandoned and cork helmets with a rubber coating were introduced as this one. 

Metal military-style helmets came back in world war II 

Helmet at least in the UK are yellow, but some countries the colour is used to denote rank in the fire service.

This helmet was purchased from an auction site, is very tatty some of the finish as worn off, but it was a bargain purchase.

Button Down Hat

This hat was a brilliant Christmas gift, made by Julie.

Julie has knitted and crochet me 3 hats over several years, one of her hats is my most worn hat by a country mile and I can see this one becoming well worn as well

Julie has advised me the hat is modified from a pattern called Button Down Hat by Cheryl Oberle and published in a book called Luxury One Skein Wonders. 

She modified it to match the yarn she used and to make it bigger as she says all the hats in the book assume the wearer has a tiny head, if she followed the pattern it would have come out at 50cm rather than 60cm. 

The hat is intended to be roomy, like a bag so it traps air around the head and helps to keep in the warmth.

The hat is basically a rectangle with 2 of the corners folded down to give it shape

Seen in these last photos during a recent walk, complete with a twig which I did not notice

X-Men Hat

This hat is here because I needed to fill in a gap of my a to z of hats, i.e X

A baseball cap with a badge

Nothing more to say.

Mr Lemon

A Christmas gift, this beret is lemon themed. 

Not only is the hat lemon coloured the pip in the centre of the crown has been made to look like a green stalk.

Stalk

This will now become an upgrade to the costume of particular character who has progressed into various lemon-based products sales.

No need to say any more about berets as they have been covered in plenty of previous posts.

PS the lemon necklace was previous gift from the same person.

This is a Piece of Crap

I've bought some bad hats before, but this has got to be worst.

It's supposed to be a Montera which is a hat that represents the bull and worn by bullfighters, the real hats are not cheap and only wanted one for this blog, so ordered this off eBay, it looks nothing like the real thing, is made of recycled cardboard by the look of it and would not fit anybody comfortably.

Most of the time fancy dress hats, novelty or tourist hats can be decent and while not robust fit the bill and can be worn.

This hat, however, is a lesson learned. 

Will end up in the bin soon as it's taking up space.

Cordoba

This Spanish Cordoba is a cheap tourist quality hat and does not represent the real thing very well. the real hats don't have tassels around the brim. 

The Cordova Hat is basically wide flat-brimmed hat with the flat crown about 10 cm tall

The hat originated in Còrdoba Spain and the traditional colour is black.

Wide-brimmed hats make sense in sunny countries as they help provide shade

The hat was seen in painting from the 17th Century so dates back at least that far.

These hats are mostly nowadays worn by flamenco dancers, tourists and Zorro. 

Bourrelet

This is Bourrelet, is basically a ring of stuffed fabric

The name bourrelet is probably derived from the French language word bourrer meaning to stuff or to pad

The name describes a type of headwear worn in 15th-century Europe, even if these pictures are of a more Arabic look.

The hat can be made by either stuffing a tube of fabric or just a roll of fabric, sometimes even a ring of platted fabric.

The Bourrelet can be used on its own as the hat in this picture, which is worn with blue scarf held in place by bourrelet or can form part of the brim of another hat such as a chaperon  

The bourrelet can be worn by both men and women, in women, it formed the base of many elaborate headdress.

Plague Mask

During the 17th Century, beaked masks were worn by so-called 'Plague Doctors' in Italy (and to a lesser degree in other parts of Europe) as part of the overall protective wardrobe.

The mask was worn along with spectacles, leather gloves, long coats and trousers sewn into their boots. The overall look was very dark and ominous.  

The mask was intended to protect the doctor from the plagues miasma spread through poisoned air that in turn imbalance a person humors, this was in a time before germs were understood.

 (The four humors medicine are black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood)

The mask was filled with perfumes and other smelly stuff which was believed to help protect the wearer.

This is an Italian carnival style version of mask

This particular mask was given to our lrp group by one of our crew