EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER AND STUD

Here is the firm’s explanation of the Coke Hat (Fig. 4).

In 1850 Lock & Co. was commissioned by William Coke, a relative of the Earls of Leicester of Holkham Hall, Norfolk to produce the first coke or bowler hat ever made. The new hat was designed for his gamekeepers to wear, it was low crowned, small brimmed, hard and protective and was destined to replace their headwear of top hats [Fig. 5]. The top hats with their tall crown were easily knocked off the gamekeepers’ heads by low-hanging branches and chance encounters with poachers. A gamekeeper’s life was an eventful one added to which there were the ongoing costs of replacing damaged top hats. A prototype of Mr Coke’s design was produced by Lock & Co. and he visited St James’s Street to inspect his new hat. He was presented with a very rigid hat, constructed of layers of muslin and stiffened with shellac (varnish derived from an Indian beetle). Mr Coke took it out of the shop and placed it on the pavement, and then jumped up and down on it. The hat withstood the test and as was customary at Lock & Co. was called the coke after the customer for whom it was made. Although the coke hat started life as a protective working man’s country hat, it replaced its tall-crowned cousin the top hat and migrated from the country to the cities. The hat became the uniform headwear of city stockbrokers, barristers and civil servants at Westminster.

Evelyn Waugh was photographed in a top hat on his way to Auberon's wedding in July 1961. Lock & Co. no longer make silk top hats, but they will repair your old one.

Figs. 6 & 7: Evelyn Waugh's head shape at Lock & Co., and the Conformateur.

Lock & Co. still preserve Evelyn Waugh’s head shape (Fig. 6) and the ledger ordering the Coke Hat. The head shape was taken by a machine called the Conformateur.

At Lock & Co. some wearers found the hard hats -- the bowler and top hats are hard hats -- so harsh upon the brow that it became necessary to find a method of shaping these hats to produce a more comfortable fit. An ingenious Frenchman, M Maillard,

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