Peaky blinders: why do the peaky blinders wear a flat cap?

Peaky Blinders is the British period crime drama that everybody is talking about, set in post-war Britain. The Sunday Post reported after the season five premiered in the Summer of 2019,

there was a 300 percent increase of searches for baker boy caps on eBay. But why do the Peaky Blinders wear a flat cap? Express.co.uk has everything you need to know. WHY DO THE PEAKY

BLINDERS WEAR A FLAT CAP? Peaky Blinders follows the lives of the Shelby crime family in Birmingham, England. The Shelby family is an entirely fictional family, but they and their gang, The

Peaky Blinders, are based on a real urban young gang of the same name that was active in the late 19th century. Peaky Blinders is set in the aftermath of the First World War and in the fifth

season brings the Shelby family into the 1930s. Despite the timeline difference, the Shelby Family dress similarly to the real Peaky Blinders. READ MORE PEAKY BLINDERS SEASON 6 SET FOR

MAJOR CHANGES AS SHOW STARTS FILMING The tweed flat cap, also known as a baker boy cap, was a working-class man’s cap in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The flat cap was

historically worn by shipbuilders, dockers, farmers and newspaper sellers. However, in the 1910s and 1920s, the flat cap crossed social class and geographical borders. The real Peaky

Blinders and the London gang led by Charles Sabini famously wore the flat cap. As legend the goes, the Peaky Blinders gang sew razor blades into the peaks of their caps, earning the nickname

Peaky Blinders. Historian David Cross, of the West Midlands Police Museum in Sparkhill, told the BBC: “If you think of your grandfather’s cap in those days, then it would have had a very

hard peak. “They used their hats with razor blades sewn in so they were able to rob people. That’s what a Peaky Blinder was. “When they hit someone or headbutted someone on the nose while

wearing one, it would cause their victim temporary blindness.” However, historian Carl Chinn and author of The Real Peaky Blinders told the Birmingham Mail, that the real Peaky Blinders

would not have been able to afford the razor blades. He said: “As for the razor blades? They were only beginning to come in from the 1890s and were a luxury item, much too expensive for the

Peaky Blinders to have used. “And any hard man would tell you it would be very difficult to get direction and power with a razor blade sewn into the soft part of a cap. "It was a

romantic notion brought about in John Douglas’s novel, A Walk Down Summer Lane.” DON'T MISS... Peaky Blinders season 6: Will Stephen Graham play Gina Gray’s father? Peaky Blinders: Why

religion could have started real life gangs Peaky Blinders: Who does Charlotte Riley play in Peaky Blinders? Unfortunately, it remains unclear today whether the real Peaky Blinders gang

really did have razor blades hidden in their flat caps. The legend is portrayed in the show, with Tommy (played by Cillian Murphy), Arthur (Paul Anderson) and John (Joe Cole) all having the

blades tucked away in the peaks of their caps. Speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Murphy revealed that late superstar David Bowie was such a huge fan of Peaky Blinders, he sent him a

photograph of himself wearing the signature flat cap. Murphy revealed that the flat cap Bowie was wearing was the one he wore as Tommy Shelby in the first series. He said:” “He was a very

sweet man and a genuine fan of Peaky Blinder's, and I was a huge, huge David Bowie fan. “He was very private and probably wouldn’t like all this fuss.