cocked hat

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The full-dress uniform of École Polytechnique of France comprises black trousers with a red stripe (a skirt for females), a coat with golden buttons and a belt, and a cocked hat (officially called a bicorne).

The cocked hat is a style of formal headgear, or hat, worn by certain civilian, military and naval officials from the early 19th century until the beginning of World War II.

Evolved from the bicorne, the cocked hat is pinned up at two sides to form a hump-back bridge shape, it is worn with the front end protruding over the nose and the back of the neck. A cockade in the national colours may be at the right side (French tradition) or may have a plume on the top (British military c.1800); the cocked hat is often trimmed with gold or silver bullion lace and tassels. Naval officers wore this hat without further decorations, but those worn by military and civilian officials may be lavishly decorated with coloured ostrich or swan feathers.

Officers in most navies wore the cocked hat as part of their full dress uniforms until at least 1914. Although the cocked hat remained part of ceremonial dress for senior officers in the British, French, US, Japanese and other navies until World War II, it has now almost disappeared in this context.

After 1945 however, some military, diplomatic and colonial officials resumed wearing the cocked hat at very formal occasions. See bicorne for details.

Idiom

To be knocked into a cocked hat is to be soundly and swiftly defeated.

See also

• List of hats and headgear
• Tricorne
• Bicorne