The hit BBC drama Peaky Blinders, now in its fifth series, takes inspiration from the real gangs of late 19th-century Birmingham. Its members were marked by two defining passions: natty streetwear and extreme violence. So what did they really look like?
Contrary to the myth that grew in later decades, writes historian Andrew Davies for BBC History Magazine, gang members did not wear caps lined with razors. They wore ‘billycock’ or bowler-style hats, made of hard felt, with a rakish, curved rim, two-and-a-half inches wide. The brims of their hats would be moulded into a point and worn tilted over one eye. Peaky Blinders could also be distinguished by wearing extravagant flared trousers known as bell-bottoms, traditionally part of a naval uniform.
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