Thursday 23 June 2016

Purple Zucchetto

This hat is a Zucchetto worn by the Pope and other clerics of various Catholic Churches although I think the pope wears a white one but apparently he can wear any colour he wants. 
Also worn by the higher clergy in Anglicanism, and some other Christian Orthodox churches.




Basically a small skull cap, Zucchetto mean small gourd in Italian, this may be because the panels are sewn together to make a shape like the dome of a pumpkin or gourd.




Rabbis of Jewish faith also wear these although theirs are called kippot which is the Hebrew word for skullcap. They can also be called yarmulkes (pronounced yamakas), which is a Yiddish word taken from the Polish word also for skullcap.




Apparently the Zuchetto came in to being to keep shaven heads warm when it was the tradition for religious clerics to shave their heads. On the other hand Jews wear them as respect to God, which comes the religious book, the Talmud, which orders them to: "Cover your head in order that the fear of heaven may be upon you." 



 This hat is also known by the names pilus, pilos, pileus, pileolus, subbiretum, submitrale, soli deo, berrettino, calotte.


This hat is part our crew kit 

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Turban Hat

This is what I'm calling a turban hat since its not piece of cloth wrapped around your head to make a turban, its formed ready to wear shaped hat, made to look turban like.


Made as a piece of theatre costume, I found this at Chow's Emperium while rummaging one day on her stall. 


Formed around a plastic skull cap with various fabric off-cuts and then decorated beads and feathers, getting a bit battered, but still good.


This hat is great for transporting you into some Arabian tale, such as Sinbad, Aladdin, Ally Baba and the forty thieves.




Wednesday 8 June 2016

Iron Man

A man with iron.

Wearing a hard hat.

Ironing is a tough job and safety is important.


The builders hard hat is seen everywhere in today's safety conscious environment and rightly so, the amount of fatalities and lesser injury as dropped dramatically since the days when work wear was jeans and t shirt. If I go on building site I now have to wear gloves, safety boots, hi-viz jackets, safety glasses as well as a hard hat and that's alongside safety training and all the permits you might sign.



Hard hats were once steel but now they are rigid plastic designed to protect the head from falling object or banging your head on projecting nasty objects, essential where there is any risk, one of these saved me from nasty injury when a bolt was dropped from scaffold tower 30 foot and hit the hat, I felt a heavy bang but nothing else.

The hard hats were first worn at the very end of the 19th century in the USA who seem to have led the way in their use.


This one is quite old and probably no longer to current standards but makes a great costume prop.


Wednesday 1 June 2016

Crewe Steampunk Convivial

Last weekend I visited Crewe Steampunk Convivial and dressed up for the visit including a greeny brown Derby hat


Posing by traction engine


Equipped with basic goggles since when your zooming about at speeds over 5 mph on these steam monsters you could get eye damage.


Crewe Steampunk Convivial was a jolly good day out, but I missed most of the entertainment, this was the first event in Crewe of its kind I understand and perhaps needs a little more work to grow into something good, the set up was very dis-jointed, no signs, no timetables, however if they try again I will probably go again. 



This hat was found at a car boot sale.


Now I'm British so perhaps I should say I was wearing a Bowler Hat, but see my previous post here if you want to know why its a Derby.