After a client requested ‘bowler hat inspired’ cocktail napkins, we dove into the history of the bowler hat and were pleasantly surprised to find it’s not only for Charlie Chaplin and Sherlock Holmes…

The bowler hat was designed in 1849 by the London hat-makers Thomas and Williams Bowler for an English customer who wanted a hat to protect gamekeepers from low-hanging branches while on horseback. It replaced the previously worn top hats, which were too tall for the sport. First, popular in both the United Kingdom and America in the remaining 19th century, and later became a staple for business men in the middle and upper classes – known as “City Gents”.

In America, the hat was known as the ‘derby’ and replaced the cowboy hat for many living in the west at that time. In South America, it was known as the bombín where it was brought over to Bolivia by the British railway works. The Quechua and Aymara women in Bolivia took hold of the trend, and have been wearing them since the 1920s…by far modelling the most inspiring bowler hat fashion!

Traditional costumes in Bolivia

The Son of Man, by René Magritte

Charlie Chaplin

The Bowery Bear at the Bowery Hotel, NYC

Laurel and Hardy

John Steed

ILINKA Collection Bowler linen napkins

John Bonham, drummer of Led Zeppelin

Charlie Chaplin

Liza Minnelli in Cabaret

Boy George

Bolivian woman in a bombín decorated with flowers

Bolivian woman

Traditional costumes in Bolivia