A homburg is a felt

Felt

Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibres. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can be of any colour, and made into any shape or size....

 hat

Hat

A hat is a head covering. It can be worn for protection against the elements, for ceremonial or religious reasons, for safety, or as a fashion accessory. In the past, hats were an indicator of social status...

, a Tyrolean hat

Tyrolean hat

The Tyrolean hat is a type of fedora hat named for the Tyrol in the Alps. It is essentially the shape known as the Trilby. Tyrolean hats are made of felt, traditionally having a corded hatband and a feather on the side as trim....

-style fedora, characterized by a single dent running down the center of the crown (called a "gutter crown") and a stiff brim shaped in a "kettle curl". The Homburg is a stiff, formal felt hat.

The homburg is made from wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 felt or fur felt and has a grosgrain

Grosgrain

Grosgrain , also gros-grain and, rarely, gros grain, is a type of fabric characterized by its ribbed appearance. In grosgrain, the weft is heavier than the warp, creating prominent transverse ribs. It is called a "corded" fabric since the weft resembles a fine cord. Grosgrain is a plain weave...

 hatband, brim treatment and as all fine hats do, may include a decorative feather

Feather

Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They...

. All these qualities make the Homburg commonly ideal as black-tie and white-tie headgear, as a formal wear alternative to the top hat

Top hat

A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...

. The original Homburg was of slightly more generous proportions than the modern version.

It was popularized by Edward VII

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 after he visited Bad Homburg

Bad Homburg

Bad Homburg vor der Höhe is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, Germany, on the southern slope of the Taunus, bordering among others Frankfurt am Main and Oberursel...

 in Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and brought back a hat of this style. King Edward VII was a clotheshorse, exacting and expert in all sartorial matters. He was therefore flattered when his hat style was copied; at times he insisted on being copied.

The homburg was once quite common among well dressed gentlemen, and is still available in almost any color. The most common colors are black, white (for weddings), grey, tawny and brown. In 1930's Britain, a black homburg became widely known as an "Anthony Eden

Anthony Eden hat

An "Anthony Eden" hat, or simply an "Anthony Eden", was a silk-brimmed, black felt Homburg of the kind favoured in the 1930s by Anthony Eden, later 1st Earl of Avon . Eden was a Cabinet Minister in the British National Government, holding the offices of Lord Privy Seal from 1934–35 and Foreign...

" after the government minister of that name.

Al Pacino gained some renewed fame for the Homburg by wearing one in the film "The Godfather

The Godfather

The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...

". This resulted in the hat being dubbed "The Godfather".

See also

• Fedora
• "The Godfather
  The Godfather
  The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
  
  "
• Edward VII
• Tyrolean hat
  Tyrolean hat
  The Tyrolean hat is a type of fedora hat named for the Tyrol in the Alps. It is essentially the shape known as the Trilby. Tyrolean hats are made of felt, traditionally having a corded hatband and a feather on the side as trim....
  
  
• Stetson
  Stetson
  Stetsons are the brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company of St. Joseph, Missouri.Stetson eventually became the world’s largest hat maker, producing over 3.3 million hats a year in a factory spread over . Today Stetson remains a family-owned concern...
  
  
• Boss of the Plains
  Boss of the plains
  The Boss of the Plains was a lightweight all-weather hat designed by John B. Stetson for the demands of the American west. It was intended to be durable, waterproof and elegant...