page_title: Bicorne
section_title: Current use
hierarchical_section_title: Bicorne / Current use
caption_attribution_description: English: Student of the École polytechnique in dress uniform, holding his bicorne hat, during the ceremonies of Bastille Day 2007. Français&#160;: Polytechnicien en grand uniforme portant son bicorne à l'occasion des cérémonies du 14 juillet 2007.
context_page_description: The bicorne or bicorn is a historical form of hat widely adopted in the 1790s as an item of uniform by European and American military and naval officers. Most generals and staff officers of the Napoleonic period wore bicornes, and it survived as a widely worn full-dress headdress until at least 1914.
context_section_description: Members of the Académie française wear the habit vert (green habit) at the Académie's ceremonies. The habit includes a black jacket and a bicorne in the cocked-hat style, each embroidered in green.
  Students at the École Polytechnique wear a bicorne as part of their Grand Uniforme (GU). Female students used to wear a tricorne hat but now also wear a bicorne. The bicorne also formed part of the historic black and red full dress of cadets at the French Military Medical School ("École de Sante des Armées") until this uniform was withdrawn in 1971, except for limited use on special occasions. The bicorne is still worn by the members of the Cadre Noir in full dress uniform.
  The uniform of the horsemen of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna includes a bicorne.
  Diplomatic uniforms worn on such occasions as the presentation of credentials by ambassadors normally included bicornes worn with feathers and gold or silver braiding. Until World War II such uniforms were worn by even junior embassy staff but now survive only for ambassadors in a few long-established diplomatic services such as those of Britain, France, Sweden, Belgium and Spain.
  In the United Kingdom cocked hats continue to be worn by certain office-holders on special occasions:
  On occasions in Parliament when the Queen is represented by Lords Commissioners (e.g. at Prorogation) the Lords Commissioners wear plain black bicorne hats with their parliamentary robes (except the Lord Chancellor who, if present, wears his tricorne).
  At the annual Trooping the Colour in London, the Major-General commanding the Household Division wears full dress uniform (as does his chief of staff) consisting of a scarlet tunic and a cocked hat with swan-feather plume. Similar hats with distinctive upright plumes are worn by the Equerries on this and other State occasions.
  Senior officers holding certain royal or special appointments also wear cocked hats (e.g. officers of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, officers of the Yeomen of the Guard, etc.).
  In most British regiments prior to 1914, certain Regimental Staff officers in full-dress uniform wore cocked hats in place of the usual regimental headdress. Since then, the use of full dress has been largely restricted to the Household Division, which maintains the tradition: quartermasters wear cocked hats with a feather of regimental colour, whilst Veterinary Officers and Medical Officers wear cocked hats with a red feather plume and black feather plume respectively.
  Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police Service and City of London Police in full dress uniform.
  Governors of United Kingdom overseas territories may wear a cocked hat with white swan-feather plume, or in tropical territories, a plumed pith helmet. Usage has declined since a 2001 decision by HM Treasury that the overseas territorial government concerned would be responsible for meeting the cost of their governor's optional ceremonial uniforms.
  A cocked hat is still sometimes seen as part of Court uniform and dress in the United Kingdom.
  In the Knights of Columbus, Fourth Degree Knights of the Color Corps may wear regalia which includes a chivalric chapeau.  The color of the plume denotes the office held by the wearer.
  The Italian Carabinieri wear a bicorn with points sideways with their full dress uniform. The large tricolor cockade in front has given it the popular name of la "lucerna", the "lamp".
  In Java, a cocked hat is still in use in the parade uniform of the Dhaeng and Ketanggung brigades; both are from Yogyakarta Sultanate. Since the end of the Java War, they no longer function as combat troops. This cocked hat is known in Javanese as mancungan hat, because of its shape like a pointed nose, mancung. Only used on special occasions, such as Grebeg and other cultural or ceremonial events held by the kraton (palace), the headgear came as a part of Western influence in Yogyakarta, during the reign of Sultan Hamengkubuwono IV.
caption: The full-dress uniform of École Polytechnique of France comprises black trousers with a red stripe (a skirt for women), a coat with golden buttons and a belt, and a cocked hat (officially called a bicorne).
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