Interesting headwear

[Eddie Selden]

An interesting and handsome cap. Anybody know where one might be found?
Piper hat.jpg

[Greenpipe]

It looks like a Balmoral that has been soaked and formed into the shape of a military beret - or a beret with a tourie sewn on top.

[Scratcher]

It looks like a balmoral being worn by someone who knows how to wear a balmoral.
I've never seen a military beret with tail ribbons.
In the States, the balmoral is traditionally worn in the style of a kilmarnock bonnet.
Cheers
Scratch

kosb.jpg

[Lochie]

Interesting styles abound with a balmoral, just for gods sake pick one and don't wear it like a toque....
My old Regiment always went for the tartan mafia look with it pulled down in front over the eyes like a peaky blinder.
Not traditional, I suspect, but it was the fashion of the day...

[Scratcher]

My old Regiment always went for the tartan mafia look with it pulled down in front over the eyes like a peaky blinder.

Interesting.
We have all sported TOS in the approved pure-gallus shovel-front style* (until they were replaced with the smaller beret pattern ones in the 80s), but I hadn’t realised that balmorals followed the same fashion trend.
Cheers
Scratch
* at least until it rained

[pancelticpiper]

It's the traditional Highland bonnet that goes back as far as the earliest images we have of Highlanders, which in modern times is called the Balmoral bonnet. (Why "Balmoral" I have no clue; it equally could have been titled the "Argyll" or "Skye" or "Inverness" or any other Highland place bonnet.)

That bonnet in your photo looks like a proper Balmoral and if so was probably make by Robert Mackie of Scotland, which has been making them since 1845. I have two Glengarries and two Balmorals by them.

Mackie | Traditional Scottish Headwear (robertmackie.com)

That gent's is the oldest style, plain dark blue. For whatever reason Highland bonnets seemed to always be dark blue in the old days.

Plain dark blue bonnet, first half of the 18th century.



In the second half of the 18th century bonnets developed decorated borders in a check pattern, called "dicing" or a "diced border".

Bonnet with diced border 1780.

[piper909]

Does nobody wear a balmoral anymore? Has the glengarry become THAT much of a rigid uniform? I've always preferred the balmoral bonnet when I have a choice, it's just more of a traditional Scots bonnet. I am here in competition a dozen years ago -- https://vgy.me/u/uaJfOL

[Eddie Selden]

Does nobody wear a balmoral anymore? Has the glengarry become THAT much of a rigid uniform? I've always preferred the balmoral bonnet when I have a choice, it's just more of a traditional Scots bonnet. I am here in competition a dozen years ago -- https://vgy.me/u/uaJfOL

Interesting that you should mention this, piper909. It sometimes seems like the glengarry is almost ubiquitous, at least at competitions, but lately - at the Houston and Austin competitions - I've seen a couple of pipers with balmorals. In fact, at the Austin event this past Saturday, a piper was wearing a balmoral very much like the one in the photo that prompted me to start this thread. It was quite handsome headwear. He said he bought it from glengarryhats.com. I know nothing about that company, but they do offer the sloped balmoral (I don't know what else to call it). I'm not a great fan of the glengarry, so I'm going to switch to a balmoral myself (I'm not in a band, which would understandably require uniformity).

[Billy Boy]

I'll not wear a glengarry; if for no other reason than it doesn't shade my eyes from the sun, as my swept forward balmoral does.

Does anyone know of a light-weight summer balmoral option?

[EquusRacer]

Our former D/M wore his like someone had driven over the center with their car. We knew it wasn't correct, but he (from Glasgow) claimed that it was. Okey dokey!

[Calum]

Did he have Gordons connections? That was absolutely standard in the Gordon Highlanders from at least the second World War until amalgamation. I wouldn't blink at that, though I realise it's not often seen these days.

[salmunmousavi]

Does nobody wear a balmoral anymore?

I wear one! Don't even own a Glengarry anymore.

[EquusRacer]

Did he have Gordons connections? That was absolutely standard in the Gordon Highlanders from at least the second World War until amalgamation. I wouldn't blink at that, though I realise it's not often seen these days.

I didn't think so, though it's certainly possible. He was a lad in Glasgow during WWII, and he did claim that was proper.

[Billy Boy]

Great photo of the D/M! I'm with him.

Yes, headwear often serve ceremonial, status functions. For me, a lid must be of practical use. I resist fussy adherence to form for form's sake. Warming in the cold, cooling in the heat, may it ever be adapted as circumstances require.

[pancelticpiper]

glengarryhats.com. I know nothing about that company, but they do offer the sloped balmoral (I don't know what else to call it).

They're just called a Balmoral, true that they are generally worn sloped, the side with the badge being more straight up, the side away from the badge sloping down.

Glengarryhats is fine if you want a Pakistani-made bonnet. I prefer Scottish-made things so I get my Robert Mackie bonnets from J Higgins.