Origin of Andes Victorian headgear

[Crandolph]

What’s the Straight Dope on how the Aymara and Quechua of Bolivia and Peru came to wear bowlers, fedoras, top hats and a variety of other felt hats normally associated with British gentlemen of the 19th and early 20th centuries?

Is this something which swept in a fashion wave over South America and was only retained by the indigenous peoples, or did the Latino population also wear these hats and then abandon them? Why do more women than men appear to be wearing them as well?

I’ve been able to find a couple of unlikely sounding urban legend-type tales on the web but I was wondering if anyone here knows the real deal. Thanks.

[Crandolph]

>BUMP< in the night… maybe some holiday homebound netsurfer will field this one… it does seem to be a poser.

[TheLoadedDog]

This what you’re looking for?

A very interesting cultural phenomenon particular to Bolivia are the ‘cholas’ or ‘Cholos’ - a terms whose origins has been much debated. These are the women, often market women that people have seen with wide hooped skirts and bowler hats. They are actually a part of society that was named in Spanish legislation of the 18th century for a mestizo (Spanish and Indian) parent who married an Indian. It was a kind of classification system. These people look very Indian but they actually straddle both worlds. The angle that the famous hats are worn and their quality vary and designate status and wealth. The famous Italian hatmaker, Borsolino, began making these hats for Peru in the late 19th Century. The cholo people are now said to be a very potent economic force in Bolivia not only in the marketplace but also because of their control of infrastructural and logistical aspects of the economy such as trucking and taxis. They are also beginning to make their presence felt in politics as well.

[psiekier]

I also think it’s interesting that in Sid Meier’s Civilization III, Montezuma of the Aztecs dons a bowler hat once his society enters the Industrial Age.

[Crandolph]

Thanks, LoadedDog, in part that answers the question of who wears the hats but not how it came to pass nor why women wear them more than men. When and how did the gender line on the hats get crossed? Also the non-Cholo non-bowler wearers of the Andes - Inca descendants in Peru - are donning a variety of fedoras, top hats & etc., and again mainly the women. In short I’m asking “What gives?!” It’s a funny phenomenon to see in person…