The
bowler hat, also known as a
bob hat,
derby (US),
billycock or
bombín, is a hard
felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the
British soldier and politician
Edward Coke, the younger brother of the
2nd Earl of Leicester. The bowler hat was popular with the
working class during the
Victorian era, and later on with the middle and
upper classes in the United Kingdom and the eastern United States. Later in the United Kingdom, it would come to be worn as civilian work dress by former officers of the
Queen's Guard. In Bolivia, women of
Quechua people have worn bowler hats since the 1920s when British railway workers introduced them there.