No, not the ones with the pinned-up brim. The ones I’m talking about are like the one Bruce (Eric Idle?) wore in The Bruces sketch by Monty Python. The statue maker in Walkabout wore one as well.
The had has a flat brim and a flat crown, and has little balls haning from strings around it.
When was this style popular, or at least worn enough to be recognizable as some sort of fashion?
What was it called?
What’s the deal with the dangling balls?
Dunno about (1) and (2) but on (3), the dangling bits of cork or whatever are supposed to help keep bugs (flies, mosquitoes, etc) away from your face.
If that’s true, then it makes sense. Whether it works or not, it does seem to be similar to waving your hand in front of your face.
2)I have no idea
3)As far as I am aware they were to keep insecta away from the face, althought bearing in mind my answer to 1) this may or may not be the case, although it does make sense.
Yeah, that classic dorky looking hat was used in country areas for a while. Usually by farmers and stockmen who were out on the trail working in particularly shitty places infested with flies.
I asked my father-in-law about this - he’s a farmer about 100 miles inland from Brisbane. He has some very large land holdings.
He says he honestly can’t remember anyone in HIS lifetime ever using such a hat in a true working sense, but we’ve all seen them featured in spoofs without doubt.
The father-in-law says that he and his fellow workers have simply used insect repellant all these years. Indeed, about 20 years ago you could start buying insect repellant with sun block built into it as well. I don’t think they’ve used anything else ever since.
He did mention that in all his years, nothing works as well as burning cow dung around a camp fire to scare off mosquitoes. He says the smell isn’t too bad, and you get used to it after 5 minutes and don’t even know it’s there after a while. The mozzies do though.
Not only that but now with the introduction of the dung beetle, flies out west are not nearly as bad as they were.
I believe I’ve seen those hats (sans the little balls) advertised for sale under the name Akubra (sp?), but I don’t know if that’s the name of the style of hat or a brand name.
11811
Akubra is a brand name.
Akubras are made from rabbit fur. They’re pretty expensive (over $A100) – possibly similar to high-end cowboy hats in the US.
The hat-with-dangling-corks is unlikely to be an Akubra. They’re chiefly novelty items, seen only in caricatures and tourist shops. The ones I have seen where made of cheap cloth, not fur.
The “swaggies hat” probably weren’t commonly seen since before the shearer’s strike in the 1890s, and were probably last seen in the Great Depression.
They were never a fashion item (novelty and theme parties excepted), but an identifying sign of the itinerant casual farm worker. If “Of Mice & Men” had been set in Australia, George and Lennie might have worn them.
Since when do irish jews wear Australian hats?