Zmiovka

The zmiovka (or zmijovka or zmijovec), in Slovakia knowns as budajka is a traditional Czech knitted wool cap with no bill, encircled with a cuff and topped by a small pom-pom. The crown of the cap is characterized by thin stripes radiating from the pom-pom at the center. The most traditional color scheme for a Zmiovka (including for its pom-pom) is two-tone, with one of the colors being white and the other being black, brown, or red. Knitted into the cuff is a pattern in which smaller zig-zags are predominated by a large central zig-zag. The zig-zag is quite angular, but it has been so widely considered serpentine that the cap is most commonly called after a zmije, Czech for a viper, or more specifically a pit viper. The cap is less often referred to as hadovka, from the more general Czech word for “snake”.
The zmiovka is said to have originated while what is now the Czech Republic was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was and is generally identified with rural life, and it has been most closely associated with perambulating butchers (especially those that visited farms to butcher hogs on site), innkeepers, fishmongers, and later truck drivers. In the Czech Republic, it is still sold in work-wear and uniform stores, as well as in hat stores.
In recent years, the Zmiovka has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity and notoriety. It has been featured on characters in a number of films, including the Oscar-nominated "My Sweet Village", and it has been seen on celebrities from punk folk accordionist Jim Čert to former prime minister Vladimir Špidla. It is available these days in many more colors than the most traditional ones, although it is almost always still two-tone in the Czech Republic. Its most spectacular growth in popularity, (sometimes attributed to its suitability where there are marked temperature differentials between day and night), has been in equatorial Africa, especially in Senegal and Nigeria. There, psychedelic rainbow color schemes have triumphed over two-tone traditionalism and have been a key aspect of Africans’ making the Zmiovka their own.
In Slovakia, zmiovka is known under popular name Budajka, and it is viewed as one of symbols of Velvet Revolution, as it was worn in cold november days by one of leaders of revolution, Ján Budaj.