Tag Archives: Fez

The Songkok – The Headdress of Maritime Southeast Asia

Songkok1

Often misidentified as a fez, the “songkok” is a different type of headdress that has been worn by both soldiers and civilians alike in South Asia. Today it is a type of headdress widely worn in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and even in parts of the Philippines.

The songkok is likely based on the fez, where it spread to South Asia by Ottoman sailors. A type of songkok was also worn in parts of the Ottoman Empire and even parts of Africa. So while there is a connection between the fez and songkok and these headdresses are similar in that there is no brim and the shape and height of the hats are quite different. Continue reading →

Headdress of the Royal West African Frontier Force

RWAFF1

The Royal West African Frontier Force was a multi-battalion field force, which was formed by the British Colonial Office in 1900 to help garrison the West African colonies of Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia. It was originally designated the “West African Frontier Force,” and in 1928 received the royal patronage – becoming the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF).

On formation it comprised the Gold Coast Regiment, Northern Nigeria Regiment, Southern Nigeria Regiment, the Sierra Leone Battalion and the Gambia Company. The parade uniform of the RWAFF was a distinctive one and consisted of khaki drill shorts with red fezzes, along with scarlet “zouave” style jackets edged in yellow and red cummerbunds. Artillery units wore a blue jacket with yellow braid, while engineers wore red jackets with blue braid. British officers originally wore sun helmets, and later a bush or slouch hat. Continue reading →

The Italian Tropical Tarbusc

The standard Italian “Tarbush” (Collection of Piero Pompili)

The standard Italian “Tarbush” (Collection of Piero Pompili)

The “tarbusc,” from the Persian Sarpush (headdress) is a hat similar to fez, a truncated cone shape, and was typical of the indigenous Italian troops in Eritrea and later AOI (Italian East Africa).

It was “inherited” by Egyptian troops stationed at Massawa, at the time of the first Italian occupation in 1885. The original version of the headdress was used by the irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, the Bashi Bazuk (“Mad Heads”) and was red with a black bow. Continue reading →