Prince Henry cap

What it is

A Prince Henry cap is a peaked cap: headwear with a brim in front and a crown above it. What sets it apart from near relatives such as the mariner's cap is the band, which is tall, and the crown, which is firm and small. The crown measures only a little more across than the band and stands at about the same height all round. Trim runs along the band and the peak, and the cap is usually made in dark colours.

Origins and history

The cap carries the name of Prince Henry of Prussia, who lived from 1862 to 1929. He was a grand admiral and the younger brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The shape itself comes from the headgear worn by members of the Imperial Yacht Club, and that club's cap in turn followed the one issued to the Imperial German Navy. That is how a piece of club and navy dress came to be known by a royal name.

Materials and trim

Older caps were made from pure wool. These days wool is often swapped for synthetic fibres, and corduroy has been a common choice since the 1950s. The trim is decorative: embroidery shaped like oak leaves, and a cord that is braided or twisted, sit on the band and the peak. Colour is mostly restrained. Deep blue, grey and black are the usual shades, while brown and green turn up less often.

A chancellor's cap

The name also covers things that are not strictly the same cap. In Germany it became well known through Helmut Schmidt, the chancellor. What he wore was a Hanseatic hat, in fact a Heligoland pilot's cap that came from Hamburg. Its outline was close enough to the Prince Henry cap that people often used that name for it. His habit of wearing it is what made the style popular around the country.

When and where

Germany is where the cap's story sits. Its ancestors belonged to the Imperial Yacht Club and, through that club, to the Imperial German Navy. The cap that the chancellor Helmut Schmidt wore came from Hamburg, the one place named in connection with the style.

What Prince Henry cap means

The cap's name points to a grand admiral of an imperial navy, and its shape belongs to the dress of a yacht club and a fleet. The oak leaves and the cord on band and peak are the sort of trimming used on naval headgear, so the cap reads as service dress rather than an ordinary hat. The sources do not describe what wearers felt about it.

Questions people ask about Prince Henry cap

See also

Vyshyvanka DayAn annual day for wearing traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts across the worldDirndlA fitted dress with apron from the German-speaking Alps, worn for festivals and weddings.LederhosenLeather breeches that began as work wear and now belong to Alpine festivalsTrachtTraditional dress of the German-speaking regions, from lederhosen to the dirndl

Good reading and sources

• Prince Henry cap on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

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