The Hatmakers Behind the Original Peaky Blinders Caps

The Story of Tartan: From Highland Cloth to Timeless Headwear Reading The Hatmakers Behind the Original Peaky Blinders Caps 9 minutes

By Web DevMay 22, 2026

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HERITAGE & CRAFT

Before the show became a global phenomenon, the BBC came to us. Here is why — and what it means for the cap on your head.

CHRISTYS' LONDON · MAY 2026 · 7 MIN READ

There is a moment, very early in the first episode of Peaky Blinders, when Thomas Shelby walks out of the fog of Small Heath and pulls his cap low over his eyes. The show had not yet explained who he was, what he wanted, or what he was capable of. It did not need to. The cap said everything. What that moment did not say, and what most viewers have never known, is that the cap on Cillian Murphy's head was made by us.

Christys' London has been the godfather of British hatmaking since 1773. Long before Birmingham's most notorious fictional family made the bakerboy cap an object of global fascination, we had been making this very silhouette for generations. When the BBC's costume department began building the visual world of Peaky Blinders, they turned to the same address they would have turned to for any serious British headwear. They came to Christys'.

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Two Hundred and Fifty Years in the Making

The story begins not in Birmingham but in London, on 1st March 1773, when Miller Christy, a young Quaker who had served his hatting apprenticeship in Edinburgh, established a hat manufacturer on Whitehart Court in the City of London, in partnership with fellow Quaker Joseph Storrs. The business grew steadily, expanding across London, into Stockport, and eventually into Oxfordshire, where our workshop continues to operate today.

In those early years, Christys' made top hats - the defining headwear of the Georgian and Victorian eras. When Prince Albert chose a Christys' top hat and was seen wearing it in public, the style became de rigueur for the British gentleman. It was, in the language of the time, a blinding look. The cap craze of the early twentieth century came later, as working-class culture asserted its own aesthetic - and when it did, Christys' was there to make those caps too.

1773 Founded in London by Miller Christy

253+Years of continuous British hat-making

9 British monarchs

3 years Older than America!

Over those 250 years, Christys' hats have appeared on heads that shaped history. Winston Churchill. Marlon Brando - whose Homburg hat as Don Corleone in The Godfather was a Christys' original. The Prince of Wales. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Kate Moss. Brad Pitt. Each one a chapter in a story that has never required inventing, because the truth of it is remarkable enough.

The Bakerboy Cap: An Honest History

The cap that Thomas Shelby wore, the eight-panel bakerboy, sometimes called a newsboy or Shelby cap - has a history that predates both Christys' and the real Peaky Blinders gang who inspired the show. Its roots lie in the working-class streets of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, where it was worn by newspaper boys, factory workers, dockworkers, and anyone who needed a cap that was warm, practical, and cheap enough to replace when it wore out.

The BBC's original costume designer, Stephanie Collie, based Thomas Shelby's look on real criminal mug shots from the period. She chose the newsboy cap because it was authentic - the precise headwear a man of Shelby's background, era, and ambition would have worn. It was working-class headwear elevated by the man inside it. For Christys', that commission was entirely natural. This was exactly the kind of cap our craftspeople had been making for over a century.

We didn't follow the Peaky Blinders trend. We were already making the cap before the show existed, and we helped put it on screen. That is a different thing entirely from cashing in on a cultural moment.

CHRISTYS' LONDON

How Christys' Came to Dress the Shelby Family

When Peaky Blinders began production for the BBC, its costume department needed caps that would hold up to scrutiny - historically accurate in construction, genuinely British in character, and built to the exacting standards that professional costume requires. Mass-produced caps made overseas were not a serious option for a production of this ambition. The answer was Christys'.

Christys' supplied the caps worn on screen during the original series. The same eight-panel construction. The same attention to silhouette and fit. The same British workshop in which they had been made for generations. When Cillian Murphy pulled that cap low over his eyes in Small Heath, the cap itself was a genuine piece of British heritage - made by hand, made in England, made by us.

The show went on to become one of the most-watched British dramas in recent memory, streaming in over 190 countries. Sales of flat caps and bakerboy caps surged — one major British department store reported a rise in flat cap sales of 83 per cent within a fortnight of a single season premiere. The silhouette that working-class Britain had worn for a century became, almost overnight, a global fashion statement. The cap that Christys' had been quietly making all along was suddenly everywhere.

A Legacy in Milestones

1773

Christys' founded on Whitehart Court, London, by Miller Christy and Joseph Storrs. Begins manufacturing felt hats and top hats for a growing British market.

1850s

Prince Albert adopts the Christys' top hat, making the style essential for the discerning British gentleman and cementing Christys' royal association.

1890s

The real Peaky Blinders gang is active in Birmingham. The bakerboy and peaked cap - later to become the defining visual of the TV series - is standard street wear for working-class men across Britain. Christys' is already making this silhouette.

Early 1970s

Marlon Brando wears a Christys' Homburg as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. A single hat on a single film establishes the brand's enduring relationship with cinema's most iconic roles.

1981

Harrison Ford wears a Christys' Poet Adventurer hat as Indiana Jones - one of cinema's most recognised silhouettes, made in Oxfordshire.

2013

Peaky Blinders premieres on BBC Two. Christys' supplies the bakerboy caps worn by the Shelby family in the original series. Cillian Murphy's Thomas Shelby makes the cap an international icon.

2023

Christys' marks its 250th anniversary - a milestone achieved by fewer than a handful of British manufacturers in any industry. The craft that began in 1773 continues in Oxfordshire.

2026

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is released on Netflix. Christys' responds with The Thomas Original - a strictly limited edition Harris Tweed collector's cap, with a woven label drawn from the Thomas image created for the film, presented in a bespoke black gift box. The original hatmakers complete the circle.

Why Harris Tweed - and Why It Matters

For The Thomas Original, there was only one fabric worth considering. Harris Tweed is not simply a tweed. It is the only fabric in the world protected by its own Act of Parliament - the Harris Tweed Act of 1993 - which defines and enforces precisely what it must be: handwoven by islanders at their own homes in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, using pure virgin wool that has been dyed and spun in the islands. Every yard carries the Orb mark, the globally recognised certification of authenticity.

It is a dense, characterful, beautifully textured material - warm, naturally water-resistant, and built to last decades. It is also, emphatically, British. When Christys' puts Harris Tweed into a cap made by hand in England, the result is something that carries the weight of two distinct craft traditions: the Scottish weaving heritage of the Outer Hebrides, and the English hat-making heritage that has been practised in our workshops for over 250 years.

The Thomas Shelby who pulled his cap low in Birmingham would have expected nothing less.

The Thomas Original: Completing the Circle

With the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man - the 2026 Netflix film that brings Cillian Murphy back as Thomas Shelby for the final chapter of his story - Christys' has created something that only we could honestly make. The Thomas Original is a strictly limited-edition collector's cap: hand-cut and hand-assembled in our workshops, made in genuine Orb-certified Harris Tweed, with a specially woven collector's label drawn from The Thomas image created for the film.

It arrives in a bespoke black presentation box - the striking woodcut portrait of Thomas printed bold on the lid - and is available for £155. Once the edition is sold, it will not be reproduced. The label, the box, and the provenance behind it are specific to this moment in the franchise's history.

For Christys', it is the natural conclusion to a story that began in 2013, when a BBC costume department decided that the most important cap on British television should be made by the most important hatmaker in British history. We were honoured then. We are honoured now.

LIMITED EDITION - 2026