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When it comes to fashion everything is possible and almost anything is permitted. If you accept that you will also admit that its quite possible for some cartoon characters to become trend setters. And that is exactly what happened to the Smurfs, a fictional group of small blue creatures that Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford created.

Time changed shapes and sizes but still, there is one style that appears never to go out of fashion: the snappy Phrygian hat. A soft conical tight-fitting cloche with the top pulled forward. What is the first thing that comes to mind when hearing this brief description? It sounds like a Smurf hat, doesn’t it? Well, that is not entirely accurate. Culliford’s blue creations are definitely not the first ones to wear such an accessory although they certainly made a good job promoting it. The Smurf hat, as this item is better known, is, in fact, a Phrygian hat and it has been around for centuries.

In present times, people wear it when disguising themselves as a Smurf for Halloween or other events that involve wearing a costume. Little do they suspect that what they consider to be a funny, maybe even childish accessory is, in fact, an ancient symbol of liberty and that former Roman slaves used to wear it in order to announce that they are free man whose descendants were therefore considered citizens of the Empire.

Throughout history, the Phrygian hat was often use as a revolutionary icon. The French adopted the “bonnet rouge” during the French Revolution. It appeared on a lance carried by the goddess Liberty and Marianne, the national emblem of France, is shown wearing a Phrygian cap.

The Phrygian hat was also used in American iconography: The U.S. Army uses a “War Office Seal” in which the motto “This Well Defend” is displayed directly over a Phrygian cap on an upturned sword. It also appears on the state flags of West Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. One can find it on coats of arms or flags of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Argentina, Haiti, Cuba, Bolivia and Paraguay.

You can buy stylish smurf hats now available in different colours and prints.