Derby

views updated Jun 08 2018

Derby

Derby hats were rigid head coverings that traditionally were made of woolen felt. They featured slender, rolled brims and rounded, or dome-shaped, tops. Conventional, or traditional, derbies primarily were worn by men. The traditional colors were black, gray, and brown. Derbies usually featured a matching silk ribbon band tied at the side with a flattened bow.

Derby hats were named for Edward Stanley (17521834), the twelfth earl of Derby. In 1780 the earl organized a horse race. The race was held on a track in Epson, near London, England. It became an annual event, whose participants were three-year-old horses, and it became known as the Epsom Derby. The term derby came to refer to any important race for three-year-old horses. In the United States similar races, most famously, the Kentucky Derby, were named for the Epsom Derby. The style of hat known as the derby was worn by many stylish Englishmen who attended the Epsom Derby. Americans identified the hats with the races and thus the nickname stuck.

The hat Americans named derby was in fact a bowler hat, a style introduced in England during the 1850s. Bowlers became popular in Great Britain and crossed the Atlantic to the United States during the mid-nineteenth century where they became known as derbies. Primarily they were stylish hats for refined, upper-class, well-dressed gentlemen. In the late nineteenth century derbies began to be worn by men and women for horseback riding and hunting.

Beginning in the 1910s derbies were worn by dapper, or elegant, American men for office and evening wear. By the 1920s they shared popularity with wider brimmed fedora hats as attire for the successful banker or businessman. They entered American popular culture in the 1929 gangster novel Little Caesar, by W. R. Burnett (18991982), where a character is described as "the man in the derby hat." At the time derbies were adopted by a number of jazz musicians, actors, gangsters, and even traveling salesmen. Also, two of the famed Brown Derby Restaurants, where movie stars of the 1920s and 1930s gathered, were built in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, California, in 1926 and 1931. The buildings were constructed in the shape of huge derby hats, immortalizing the fashion trend. In the early 1930s derbies found an even broader market, becoming the hats of choice for men of all classes who wanted to wear a hat more stylish than common fedoras or woolen caps. The popularity of derbies lessened in the late 1930s.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Bigelow, Marybelle S. Fashion in History: Apparel in the Western World. Minneapolis, MN: Burgess Publishing, 1970.

Robinson, Fred Miller. The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

[See also Volume 3, Nineteenth Century: Bowler ]

Derby

views updated May 21 2018

Derby an annual flat horse race for three-year-olds, founded in 1780 by the 12th Earl of Derby. The race is run on Epsom Downs in England on Derby Day in late May or early June. The name is also used for a similar race elsewhere, as in the Irish Derby.

In North American usage, a derby is a bowler hat, said to be from American demand for a hat of the type worn at the Epsom Derby.
Derby Dog a dog appearing on the racecourse after this has been cleared; taken proverbially as something sure to turn up or come in the way. The term is recorded from the mid 19th century.

Derby

views updated May 18 2018

Derby. Described by Disraeli as ‘the Blue Riband of the Turf’, the Derby is the top event in the flat season's racing calendar. First run on 4 May 1780, the race is named after its founder, the 12th earl of Derby. It is a race for 3-year-olds, run on Epsom downs over 1 mile 4 furlongs. Traditionally run on the first Wednesday in June, from 1995 it moved to Saturday for commercial reasons.

Richard A. Smith

Derby

views updated Jun 27 2018

Derby City and county district on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, central England. Known for its Derby ware china, manufactured here since c.1750. Industries: railway and aerospace engineering, textiles, ceramics. Pop. (1996 est.) 234,000.

Derby

views updated May 29 2018

Der·by 1 / ˈdärbē/ a city in north central England, on the Derwent River ; pop. 214,000.

Derby

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Derby ★★★ 1971 (R)

The documentary story of the rise to fame of roller-derby stars on the big rink. 91m/C VHS . Charlie O'Connell, Lydia Gray, Janet Earp, Ann Colvello, Mike Snell; D: Robert Kaylor.

Derby

views updated May 29 2018

Derby name of an annual horse-race founded in 1780 by the twelfth earl of Derby; (U.S.) bowler hat. XIX.

Derby

views updated May 29 2018

Derby English hard cheese, often flavoured with sage.