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The pork pie was a hat for women in 19thC America and then swapped genders at the turn of the century.
Buster Keaton made his own pork pie hats, refashioning them out of Stetsons, and by his own estimation going through thousands over the course of his career. A fair few of these were snatched off the actor's head by boisterous souvenir hunters when he appeared in public. In later years the task of hat making passed on to his wife Eleanor, who used grey fedoras.
After the war, zoot-suited jazz and blues musicians started to wear the pork pie. The fashion for tight mohair suits, narrow ties and pork pie hats followed the music to London.
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