By Nicole Stawiarski

Updated 4 hours ago, July 31, 2026

The hat in the “Te Olvido (La La)” video isn’t a costume choice, it’s a lineage. Kangol started in 1938 in Cleator, a wool town in northwest England, founded by Polish-Jewish immigrant Jacques Spreiregen, who’d been importing Basque berets into London since 1918. The name is a stitched-together clue to what it was: K for knitting, ANG for angora, OL for wool.

It outfitted the British Army in World War II (Montgomery wore one) and the British Olympic team at the 1948 London Games. In the 1950s came the 504 flat cap, named for the wooden hat-block it was shaped on. The 1960s and 70s pulled it into high fashion through Mary Quant and Pierre Cardin, onto The Beatles, Arnold Palmer, and later Princess Diana.

Then New York got hold of it. LL Cool J put a red Kangol bucket on the cover of 1985’s “Radio” and made it his signature. Run-DMC, Grandmaster Flash, Slick Rick, Kurtis Blow, and Biggie all wore them. Grandmaster Flash’s is in the Smithsonian. A Run-DMC one lives in the Museum of Pop Culture. The kangaroo logo itself came from American customers mishearing the name as “kangaroo hat” in 1983, and the brand just went with it.

Every revival cycle since (Y2K, the Alexander Wang collabs in the 2010s, the Stüssy drops) has proven the same thing: the 504 and the bucket keep absorbing whatever the moment is without losing themselves. Becky G in a soft brim and a perfect tilt is the newest entry in a line that runs Cumbrian factory to British Army to Bronx cypher to a Chicana pop star in 2026. The rest of us are just catching up.

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