The Pork Pie Hat

The Pork Pie Hat and Buster Keaton

The Pork Pie Hat or Porkpie takes its name from a resemblance to a pie, pork pie. Although the style is most known as a men’s hat it has also been worn by women as a basic shape. It is most often made with felt but can be made with straw. The crown is flat with an indentation all the way around as illustrated in the pictures of Buster Keaton above. The style is said to have originated in the Victorian Period.

The silent screen movie star Buster Keaton popularized the style and he made his own pork pie hats. He cut down Stetson Hats and modified them Find out how.

While you are on the Buster Keaton site find out more about him. If you are a fan you can watch many of his old silent movies for free on the Internet Archive Website. He wears his hats well but mostly porkpie hats. You can find an example here in his 1922 movie “Daydreams” . Look for more.

Here is a cartoon of Buster Keaton from Wikimedia Commons user RailRoadGun.

Pork Pie Hats in the British Navy

The lower ranks in British Navy wear a form of Pork pie hat.

The top of the crown is enlarged for effect and the brim is not as wide as the pork pie design. It has been referred to as a pork pie style but is also referred to as a square rigger. It seems like an inverted pork pie hat to me.

Here is a poster with an earlier version of the hat.