Gangster Hats - Not just for The Bad Guys

One of the most widespread hats worn in the hip hop world today are the gangster hats, you see them on many of the top stars in the hip hop world today. You might think that with all the kids wearing baseball caps turned around backwards that they were the hot hat, but in reality it seems as though only a few of the major players go with this style of hat. The gangster hat may be popular with the hip hop world now, but this hat got its start some 75 years ago.

The Early Days

The original gangster hats are in all reality a fedora hat, known or their crown with the pinched front and the floppy, wide brim. It seems that while the fedora began life in the late 1800s as a ladies hat named for one Princess Fedora in a stage play, the gangsters seemed to like the fact that the front of the brim was tipped down giving them a more menacing look.

During the years of prohibition the top gangsters of the era were never seen without out their "gangster hat." Men such as Capone were looked up to by members not only of their own "families", but were idolized by many members of the public and as such the hats and styles of clothing were often emulated bringing the fedora into mainstream fashion.

There is however another style of hat that became popular around the same time, the Trilby. While similar in looks the British Trilby hats had a much narrower brim with an upturn at the rear instead of a downturn at the front. This hat apparently got its name from the novel Trilby written in the late 1800s by renowned author George Du Maurier. Oddly enough however much like the fedora this hat also started out as a ladies hat.

The In Look Today

While there are not so many real gangsters around today who would dare show their faces, even if they were wearing gangster hats, they have enjoyed a recent revival in popularity among the younger crowd. With hip hop musicians setting the style for many young people today the original gangster hat has become a major fashion statement among the "gangsta" rappers. While a few of them prefer to wear flat caps, the majority of them like to dress stylishly in a fedora.

Of all the movie stars that have worn a fedora or gangster hat in recent years Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies has to be one of the biggest. He wore three slightly different styles all made just for him and the movies by Herbert Johnson. This too helped to bring the gangster hats back into popularity as hundreds sought to emulate the cool but tough image that Harrison portrayed in each of the movies.

From tough guys in the movies and bad guys on the streets to modern stars like Scarlett Johansson and Justin Timberlake the fedora has long been a fashionable hat to wear. Even "Bogey" wore one in Casablanca, this style of hat is one that may disappear out of the fashion scene for short periods of time and only be seen on elderly men's heads, but it always comes full circle to be riding high again.