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Fur wedge cap

The Canadian military fur wedge cap, "envelope busby", or colloquially "The Astrakhan" is a uniform hat worn by the Canadian military and RCMP. The outside of the cap is entirely covered in real or synthetic fur and is shaped like a wedge. When not being worn the cap folds flat. The cap is about 8 inches (200 mm) high but is normally worn with the apex of the wedge shape depressed back into the interior of the cap to form a longitudinal trough at the crown, reducing the overall height. Often the cap is patterned such that the front of the crown will be slightly higher than the back. On one side of the military style fur wedge cap hangs a flat flap made of muskrat fur or cloth or wool that extends from the crown to the bottom of the cap, known as the "bag". The colour of the "bag" was determined by the regimental colours. The bag is very similar to that worn with the busby. Because of the cap's passing resemblance to the hussar busby, author and researcher James J. Boulton dubbed it the envelope busby. Still, whatever influence the busby may have had on its design, and despite its very close resemblance to traditional Russian military and civilian styles, the fur wedge cap pattern has been claimed to be "distinctly Canadian."

In popular culture
The fur wedge cap is prominently featured in the Cecil B. DeMille film North West Mounted Police (1940), with the mounted police characters all wearing the cap despite the fact that the movie is set in the summertime. A civilian version of the cap without the bag was fashionable in Canada during the 1970s. == See also ==
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