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Bicorne
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The bicorne or bicorn (two-cornered) is an archaic form of hat associated with the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Much worn by European and American military and naval officers, it is most readily associated with Napoléon Bonaparte.
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Encyclopedia
The bicorne or bicorn (two-cornered) is an archaic form of hat associated with the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Much worn by European and American military and naval officers, it is most readily associated with Napoléon Bonaparte. In practice most generals and staff officers of the Napoleonic period wore bicornes, and it survived as a widely worn full-dress headdress until at least 1914.
Descended from the tricorne, the black-coloured bicorne originally had a rather broad brim, with the front and the rear halves turned up and pinned together, forming a semi-circular fan shape; there was usually a cockade in the national colours at the front. Later, the hat became more triangular in shape, its two ends became more pointed, and it was worn with the cockade at the right side. This kind of bicorne eventually became known in the English language as the cocked hat, although to this day it is still known in the French language as the bicorne.
Some forms of bicorne were designed to be folded flat, so that they could be conveniently tucked under the arm when not being worn. A bicorne of this style is also known as a chapeau-bras or chapeau-de-bras.
The bicorne was widely worn until World War I as part of the full dress of officers of most of the world's navies. It survived to a more limited extent between the wars for wear by senior naval officers but has now almost disappeared in this context.
In addition to its military/naval uses, the bicorne was widely worn during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by civilian officials in European monarchies and Japan, when required to wear uniforms on formal occasions. This practice generally ceased after World War I but British colonial governors in temperate climates and governors general in some countries of the Commonwealth (notably Australia, Canada and New Zealand) continued to wear bicornes with ceremonial dress until the second half of the twentieth century.
Current use
On formal occasions such as a prorogation speech, the Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom wears a tricorne hat, but the other Lords Commissioners wear bicorne hats.
Members of the Académie française wear the habit vert (green habit) at the Académie's ceremonies. The habit includes a black jacket and a bicorne in the cocked-hat style, each embroidered in green.
Students at the Ecole Polytechnique wear a bicorne as part of their Grand Uniforme (GU). Female students used to wear a tricorne hat but now also wear a bicorne.
The uniform of the horsemen of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna includes a bicorne.
Diplomatic uniforms worn on such occasions as the presentation of credentials by ambassadors normally included bicornes worn with feathers and gold or silver braiding. Until World War II such uniforms were worn by even junior embassy staff but now survive only for ambassadors in a few long-established diplomatic services such as those of Britain, France, Belgium (see photo taken in 1994 of Ambassador Beyens with the Pope at http://www.klm-mra.be/klm-new/frans/pdf/vizier27/Cibles_27.pdf) and Spain.
At the annual Trooping the Colour in London, British generals taking part in the ceremony wear the scarlet-and-blue full dress of their rank, which includes a bicorne. Certain officers of the Brigade of Guards who hold administrative positions such as that of quartermaster wear bicornes (described as cocked hats) in full dress instead of the usual bearskin.
See also
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