Newsboy Cap History: So Surprising You Won't Believe
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by Alex Torres
2 min reading time
Newsboy cap history is the topic today. This hat is all the rage right now. We see it popping up all over the place. Part of its success is thanks to celebrities like David Beckham who loves his newsboy hat and is rarely seen without one. Also, Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham wear newsboy caps. We've even seen this hat sneak into video games too, as Fallout 4 recently included the hat in its post-apocalyptic digital world.
“We can't say anything bad about the ladies taking over the style either... they look super trendy."Andy Peterson
What's a newsboy hat? For starters, it's a slight variation of a flat cap or ivy cap. Most flat caps are flat - hence the name - whereas the newsboy cap has a rounder body. It also has the signature button top and is typically made with a 6-panel or 8-panel design. The name takes further variations, such as an 8-quarter cap, or 8/4 cap.
A newsboy cap has a million more nicknames, garnered through years of affection. Today it's still commonly referred to as a Gatsby cap or an apple cap, so you're safe to call it that. Lots of people confuse it with the flat cap, which it's not: Flat caps are flat, newsboys have a button. But stick to calling it a newsboy and you'll be ok.
The flat cap itself was created around 1300 AD in Northern England. It wasn't until the 1900s when the newsboy style took root, as many working class Americans and Europeans wore the style. This is when the name stuck too, as lots of kids on street corners sold papers, and they needed a hat. It wasn't necessarily a uniform, per se. Then the hat got fictionalized as the orphan character Oliver Twistgets portrayed wearing a newsboy hat.
Although we traditionally think of a newsboy as a men's hat, lots of women are adopting the cap. We can't say anything bad about the ladies taking over the style either, as women always tend to make more informed and beautiful fashion choices, and they look super trendy.