Is a Bowler acceptable

[Panache]

I suspect that SnakeEyes was jotting his thoughts down quickly and didn't mean "ignorant". I should give him the benefit of the doubt.

I think this is all about Archetypes. The mental baggage we carry with an image in our mind and how we are seeing that as well (or instead of) just the object itself. When we view a bowler hat we start thinking of perhaps Patrick Macnee as John Steed in the Avengers, or the formal slightly stuffy attire of a British Banker, an American at the turn of the Century, maybe the comic relief in a Western, Wimpy from Popeye, Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange, Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being …err…OK skip those last two . Anyway, the bowler hat brings with it some strong fashion archetypes. These images are so strong in our heads that we really can’t blend them with another strong archetype. Kilts bring with them equally strong images, be it Rob Roy, William Wallace, or Hamish . The two archetypes simply don’t blend in our heads regardless of the actual material before us.. The best suggestions for wearing a bowler with a kilt so far have been to come up with the kilt equivalent of the bankers suit.

Case in point, here is a picture for you to scroll down to and ponder:








Warning startling image below!















MacSimoin and I had been joking about “Kilts and Cowboy hats”. So I had the lovely F-H.C.A.G. take this picture in the spirit of good fun.

What’s your basic gut reaction?














I thought so.


The Western look is again a very strong fashion archetype and we reject it with the kilt.

It just looks wrong.

But think a moment. If you changed the boots for Ropers laced boots, lost the bullwhip and scarf would the outfit work now?











I thought so.

Yet if you stop a minute and break down the ensemble you can see that the snaps on cavalry shirt echo the snaps on the Utilikilt. The black leather band on the hat and the silver conchos work with the buckle. In a way it should work.

But it doesn’t

Colin refers to this picture as “Panache as Dale Evans”

So anyway the challenge presented here moved beyond a particular hat and a particular type of pleated skirt. It was trying to mesh all the associated images, history, culture, and mythology they brought with them.

Fun discussion though!

Cheers

Jamie