Cillian Murphy sends fedora sales soaring with iconic ‘Oppenheimer’ headgear look

28 July 2023

Cillian Murphy’s role in ‘Oppenheimer’ has sent fedora sales soaring.

Cillian Murphy’s role in ‘Oppenheimer’ has sent fedora sales soaring

The ‘Peaky Blinders’ actor, 47, sparked a rise in the popularity of flat caps when he played brutal gangster Thomas Selby in the BBC drama, and has now had the same effect on another style of headgear thanks to his portrayal of the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer.

Retailers are reporting a huge spike in demand for fedoras – as worn by Cillian for almost the entirety of Christopher Nolan’s wartime epic.

John Lewis is selling 21 per cent more fedoras than flat caps, and specialist hat seller Herbert Johnson says it has seen younger customers now demanding fedoras.

‘Oppenheimer’ costume designer Ellen Mirojnick believes Oppenheimer may have sourced his iconic hat in New Mexico and she commissioned a hat maker to emulate it – thought the first three makers failed to produce what she wanted.

Ellen, 74, was unable to track down the original hat but was given several photographs of Oppenheimer wearing it at Princeton and during his time at Los Alamos laboratory where he developed the atomic bomb.

His featured a particularly wide brim, and Ellen has said the hat worn by Oppenheimer in reality was not technically a fedora as it had a flat rather than pinched crown.

She told The Guardian: “It’s commonly mistaken for a porkpie hat too. Instead it’s like a cross between the two.”

Cillian and filmmaker Christopher, 52, were involved in choosing the final version of the hat worn by the actor in his leading role.

Ellen added to The Guardian: “I think of Oppenheimer like a rock star. He was very particular about his look. It was memorable. He embodied the power of communication like no other.”

Christopher requested Ellen not dress any other characters in hats, even though the film spans many decades where they would have been the norm, so Cillian’s look stood out.

He told the LA Times Oppenheimer’s headwear was as recognisable as “Freddie Mercury’s teeth”, adding: “It’s like artfully dishevelled hair, it takes a lot of fussing, and I often fussed with the hat just before a take.”