The boys' caps are styled after the caps worn by jockeys at that time. A stable's registered colors were often rather complex, particularly in Britain, and the bow provided an opportunity to display or reiterate a third color. Now that sanity has prevailed and jockeys wear hard hats both on the flat and over hedges, multicolored helmet covers and the jockey's shirt reflect the owning stable's colors, but the black, velvet-covered hard hats worn for other equestrian events still usually sport a bow, though often in back.

What's with the bows on the boys' caps? Isn't that a little odd? I have three (grown) boys, and I wouldn't think of putting bows on them when they were growing up! They would have had a fit!