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Deerstalker
 
 
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A deerstalker is a type of hat
Hat

A hat is a headcovering. It may be worn for protection against the elements, for religious reasons, for safety, or as a fashion accessory. In the past, hats were an indicator of social status....
 that is typically worn in rural areas, often for hunting
Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to law....
, especially deer stalking
Deer stalking

Deer stalking is a British English term for the stealthy pursuit of deer for sporting purposes, typically with a high powered rifle fitted with a powerful telescopic sight in order to hunt or shoot them....
. Because of the hat's popular association with Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of Scotland-born author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle....
, it is also a stereotypical hat of a detective
Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators . Informally, and primarily in fiction, a detective is any licensed or unlicensed person who solves crimes, including historical crimes, or looks into records....
.

deerstalker's main feature is a pair of fore and aft brims and two flexible side flaps.






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Sherlock Holmes Pipe Hat
A deerstalker is a type of hat
Hat

A hat is a headcovering. It may be worn for protection against the elements, for religious reasons, for safety, or as a fashion accessory. In the past, hats were an indicator of social status....
 that is typically worn in rural areas, often for hunting
Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to law....
, especially deer stalking
Deer stalking

Deer stalking is a British English term for the stealthy pursuit of deer for sporting purposes, typically with a high powered rifle fitted with a powerful telescopic sight in order to hunt or shoot them....
. Because of the hat's popular association with Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of Scotland-born author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle....
, it is also a stereotypical hat of a detective
Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators . Informally, and primarily in fiction, a detective is any licensed or unlicensed person who solves crimes, including historical crimes, or looks into records....
.

Construction

The deerstalker's main feature is a pair of fore and aft brims and two flexible side flaps. The dual brims provide sun protection for the face and neck of the wearer. The side flaps can be worn down or tied under the chin to protect the ears in cold weather and high winds, or tied up above the crown to keep them out of the way when not in use. The checkered pattern in the twill
Twill

Twill is a type of textile weaving with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs.It is made by passing the weft thread over one or more Warp threads and then under two or more warp threads and so on, with a "step" or offset between rows to create the characteristic diagonal pattern....
 fabric also serves as camouflage
Camouflage

Camouflage is a method of cryptic or concealing coloration that allows an otherwise visible organism or object to remain invisibility through deception....
, and modern hunting clothes, including deerstalkers, are often made with either a red-and-black or an orange-and-black check pattern or tweed
Tweed (cloth)

Tweed is a rough, unfinished woolen textile, of a soft, open, flexible texture resembling Cheviot_ or Spinning #Hand spinning, but more closely weaving....
 for both this purpose and hunter safety
Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to law....
.

Sherlock Holmes

The most famous wearer of this kind of hat is the fictional character
Fictional character

A character is any person, persona, identity, or entity that exists in a The arts. The process of conveying information about characters in fiction is called characterisation....
 Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of Scotland-born author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle....
, who is popularly depicted favoring this style of hat. However, in Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, Deputy Lieutenant was a Scotland author most noted for his stories about the Detective fiction Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger....
's stories Holmes is never actually described as wearing a deerstalker, although in The Adventure Of Silver Blaze
Silver Blaze

"Silver Blaze", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of the twelve in the cycle collected as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes....
, the narrator of the bulk of the stories, Dr. John Watson, describes him at one point as wearing a similar-in-design "ear-flapped travelling cap." The public perception of Holmes as a "deerstalker man" was derived from the original illustrations for the stories by Sidney Paget
Sidney Paget

Sidney Edward Paget was a Great Britain illustrator of the Victorian era, who is best known for his illustrations that accompanied Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in Strand Magazine magazine....
, Frederic Dorr Steele
Frederic Dorr Steele

Frederic Dorr Steele is an United States illustrator best known for his work on the Sherlock Holmes stories.Steele, a descendant of William Bradford , was born on 6 August 1873 at Eagle Mills, Marquette, Michigan and studied at the National Academy of Design and elsewhere in New York City....
 and others. Later uninformed depictions of Holmes that describe him wearing this hat in the city fail to take into account that the fashion-conscious Holmes would never commit such a sartorial faux pas
Faux pas

A faux pas is a violation of accepted social rules . Faux pas vary widely from culture to culture, and what is considered good manners in one culture can be considered a faux pas in another....
; the deerstalker is traditionally a rural outdoorsman's cap, not the appropriate headgear for the properly-dressed urban gentleman. Indeed, Paget and the other illustrators who portrayed Holmes in a deerstalker always placed him in the proper setting for such attire, which was to say, traveling cross-country or operating in a rural outdoor setting.