Yorkshire flat cap makers Whippet Caps reinvent heritage headwear for worldwide market

Richard, 53, from Sheffield, and Cheryl, 45, from Oxenhope, have been together for 20 years and live in Rothwell, South Leeds, with their children, Elijah, 14, and Tallulah, 11. This is also Whippet Caps HQ. “People are often disappointed to discover we don’t actually have a whippet, but a Portuguese Water Dog called Bruno,” says Richard.

They founded Whippet Caps in 2020 during lockdown, when they finally found the time and mindset to turn their idea into a reality. “We wanted to create an authentic brand of proper Yorkshire flat cap,” says Cheryl, who has always had a love of hats, Yorkshire, colour, fashion and dogs. She, like Richard, left school aged 15, and both have worked in a variety of roles and sectors. Neither had experience in fashion or textiles. “We went into this very green,” Richard says. “We have been very fortunate to have formed some fantastic relationships within the textile and fashion industries in Yorkshire, who have really taught us so much.”

The caps are hand-tailored in Castleford at Lawrence and Foster. There are currently two collections, the Classic and the recently launched Heritage Collection, working with Dugdale Bros and weavers C&J Antich & Sons, both based in Huddersfield, to design and produce their own tweed. “We then created the The Mender and The Overlooker caps in Whippet Caps Tweed No 1, named after the workers in the Yorkshire mills. This collection represents the underdog,” Richard says. “When we started Whippet Caps, we knew we wanted to represent the cloth workers who made such beautiful tweeds yet could never afford to wear them. Hence why the workers wore cloth caps, whilst the fine tweeds were reserved for the great and good.”

At first they sold the caps online at a rate of about 20 a week, but now have an agent so numbers have jump dramatically, with the US market expanding in particular. “Our customers are varied, old and young, men and women, fashionistas and traditionalists. People from Yorkshire, who used to live in Yorkshire, who married someone from Yorkshire, who love the history of Yorkshire from across the globe. We have customers in LA, Australia and South Korea.”

So, is the flat cap a Yorkshire invention? The jury is out. Legend has it that it was invented 450 years ago in England to boost sales of wool. In 1571, Parliament decreed that all non-noblemen and boys aged six and above should cover their heads with wool caps on Sundays, or face a fine of three farthings. When the law was repealed 26 years later, this simple, practical piece of headwear had become a wardrobe staple for working men, tradesmen and apprentices.

In the 1800s and 1900s, it was worn by armies of land workers and millworkers, and by the 1920s, by men of all classes, landowners choosing it for shooting and walking. In the latter part of the 20th century, the flat cap became mostly unfashionable, the preserve of retired working men in pubs, but there were always those who stalwartly championed it, from Fred Dibnah, Prince (now King) Charles and his father, Prince Philip, Sean Connery, Nigel Mansell to, latterly, Guy Ritchie, Brad Pitt, David Beckham, Richard Blackwood and Idris Elba.

And then along came BBC TV drama Peaky Blinders, and Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby pretty much sealed its status as perhaps the coolest hat on the planet. Although technically, these are really Baker Boy caps, made from eight triangular panels meeting at a central point on the crown of the hat, finished with a cloth-covered button.

“The popularity of Peaky Blinders has seen a huge increase in young men wanting eight-piece caps as part of their everyday attire,” says Cheryl. “Our caps are not fast fashion and will give a lifetime of wear in all weathers.”

All the caps are made using the finest pure wool British tweeds.

“Our Classic Collection has our caps named after the dogs we have loved and lost throughout our life. Our tweeds are named after the Yorkshire Three Peaks,” Richard says, adding: “We have produced a bespoke cap exclusively for the Aston Martin Owners Club International, which we are very proud of.”

Cheryl says: “Either one or all of us always wear a Whippet Cap when we leave the house. Rich’s favourite is the Mender. I love the Elsie in Tweed No 109 from the Heritage Collection, named after my very good friend and neighbour Elsie - a strong northern woman if ever there was one.”

Whippet Caps is also a proud official supporter of The Campaign For Wool and recently took part for the first time in Harrogate Fashion Week. In 2021 the brand was filmed for the Channel 5 series Our Great Yorkshire Life. It also supports Andy’s Man Club, a men’s suicide prevention charity offering free peer-to-peer support on Monday nights at 116 locations across the UK, donating caps to raise money via raffles and using the phrase “Don’t Keep It Under Your Hat”. The family has also committed to completing the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge this year to raise money for Whippet Rescue UK.

“The thing I love the most is becoming part of the history of the textile industry, buying the cloth, visiting the mills, the smell and movement in a new bolt of cloth,” says Richard. “Knowing that people across the globe are walking around with our proper Yorkshire Whippet Caps on their heads is very satisfying.”

• Whippet Caps is whippetcaps.co.uk, The WareHouse of Antiques, Kelham Island, Sheffield, at Hidden Wardrobe at the Corn Exchange in Leeds, and at Myrtle & Webb, Skipton.