Ode to the bucket hat

Nothing quite encapsulates an entire century like the bucket hat. For a garment first designed in the early 1900s as purely functional headgear for Irish farmers and fishermen, its sheer resilience as a cultural mainstay in every decade since is nothing short of admirable.

It wasn’t until the 1960s, however, that this cranium-hugging classic was first worn solely as a fashion prop. Adorning the heads of mods across Europe, it then began percolating through the hip- hop world in the 1980s. Before long, the bucket hat had been dressing entire subcultures for over 30 years, although it wasn’t until the rise of Acid House and Britpop that it really began to infiltrate everyday life and, in turn, football terrace wear as we know it.