Is the bowler back?

Flickr: Sundaykofax

An article in the Daily Telegraph today says bowler hats may be coming back because Austin Reed is relaunching them from its London store in Regent Street.

Ahem. I've seen a number of them around London in recent years - a very small number but a number nonetheless. Congrats and all to Austin Reed's PR people but it's never really gone away, albeit they may do something to popularise it again.

I can't quite see it taking off myself. Young people wearing it 'ironically' maybe - I don't imagine the woman in the picture here is wearing it entirely seriously. But it has so many connotations of Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and others that I can't see anyone classifying it as classically smart in today's mainstream. I'd be pleased to hear views to the contrary, mind.

The Telegraph article is odd. It says that Patrick Macnee wore one in the revival of The Avengers in the 1970s which indeed he did - but ignores the fact that he also wore several in the original Avengers in the sixties, which was surely where the style was set.

Bowlers are rarely flattering, and if you have a round face they'll accentuate rather than flatter. My guess is that it's going to stay a minority niche and a novelty - as always, I'm happy to be proven wrong and/or disagreed with.