Written in collaboration with MDFification at Late Loyalists Anonymous. Ported over from Ao3.
In the TV show Arcane, the enforcers are a French-style gendarmerie that combines policing and military action into one single group. Different parts of the city have different reactions to them. In topside, they are seen as heroic, noble law enforcement. By contrast, in the undercity, they are seen as an oppressive occupying force. These relationships are represented by the differing character design choices of what headwear they wear in each region, which references real life military hats.
Parade Hat
Caitlyn in parade dress. From https://arcanegifs.tumblr.com/post/733604939682775040
Enforcers taking a break from guarding Progress Day. From https://www.reddit.com/r/arcane/comments/u5iyfm/spoilers_ep4_details_about_the_enforcers_uniform/
The cylindrical shape of this extremely tall hat and the little visor at the bottom resemble the shaco of the 1800s. The shaco was worn by European militaries to add height to a soldier’s profile at a distance, which they believed made them more intimidating in an era where the deciding factor in combat was often the bayonet charge. As weaponry advanced, hand-to-hand combat became less important, and the shaco’s function became increasingly irrelevant. It lived on into the era of the rifle, often shortened to save fabric - see for example the headgear of the American Civil War. In modern times, the shaco’s use is purely ceremonial, featuring in the occasional forces’ parade uniforms or the fancier guard posts i.e. Buckingham Palace. This visual reference to the shaco makes the enforcers appear antiquated and mostly ceremonial in scenes where these hats are worn.
A French naval Shako, Musée de la Marine, Paris. Probably Naval Infantry, around 1829. From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MuseeMarine-ShakoMarine.jpg
Additionally, the angled peak in front and the detailing around the white diamond evokes the 8-point cap. The 8-point cap was adopted by many American police forces in the mid-1900s and is still used in some places today. By including this angled peak, the parade hat brings associations of municipal-level law enforcement.
An 8-point cap available for online order from the Public Safety Store, aimed at “police officers, security guards, and other law enforcement personnel.” From https://www.thepublicsafetystore.com/rothco-8-point-police-security-cap.html
We only see the parade hat a few times, when enforcers stand on guard during Progress Day in topside and when Caitlyn visits the airship that was attacked. In their most heroic act of the entire series, enforcers wearing this hat rush into a burning building in an attempt to save a little girl (who happens to be Jinx luring them into a trap). This parade hat represents the enforcers at their best: mostly ceremonial but ready to jump into action to save civilians and investigate crime as needed. This is how the government of Piltover and patriotic topside citizens like to imagine enforcers, who they have a good relationship with.
Notably, the parade hat is never worn in the undercity. The enforcers have a very different relationship with the undercity, and wear a different type of head gear there.
Stahlhelm
Grayson leads a squad of enforcers through the streets of Zaun. From https://kerchanimeprotagonist.tumblr.com/post/706360886650191872, who makes a similar point in their post.
The other major type of enforcer headwear is a helmet with a very different shape. The brim of the helmet flares outwards at the sides and the back in a way that matches the stahlhelm. The stahlhelm was developed by Germany in the 1900s in order to improve survivability versus shrapnel. It is heavily associated with the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany, to the point that many militaries in real life have decided not to use that helmet design even though it is very effective.
These particular stahlhelms have been modified with some kind of rail running along the crest. It’s possible that this feature references helmets from the Roman Empire, specifically the attachment points for the plumes sometimes worn by officers, but it’s hard to say.
The badge on top of these helmets serve as a visual piece of lip service to the idea that this headwear is for police. The detail is easily lost in the overall silhouette of the stahlhelm and everything else it symbolizes. Overall, this is a war helmet, and enforcers wear it when they expect a fight.
Enforcers always wear the stahlhelm when inside the undercity. Oftentimes, this is accompanied by a gas mask. This full set of headwear, plus the harsh breathing noises heard the very first time that enforcers appear onscreen, evokes Darth Vader from Star Wars, which has become an easy visual shorthand in popular culture to show that a character is tied to authoritarian, imperialist politics. In short, undercity residents see enforcers as an oppressive enemy force that they expect to commit human rights abuses.
It’s notable that in the entirety of Arcane, Caitlyn never wears the stahlhelm. In season 1, this is meant to show that she is approaching the undercity on a much more equal basis where she wishes to help the people within. However, this changes in season 2, symbolized by a new type of headwear.
Beret
Upscaled image of the strike team entering Zaun posing in their new gear. From Arcane in Detail https://x.com/arcaneindetail/status/1798891241041776704/photo/1
Stylized version of the strike team with the Grey in the background. From Screenrant. https://screenrant.com/arcane-caitlyn-team-characters-weapons/
Unlike the other pieces of enforcer headwear in Arcane, this style of beret is used by current militaries today.
In real life, the beret is a civilian hat that made its way into official military kit around the end of the nineteenth century. It was commonly worn by soldiers prior to its official adoption, but not because it serves any particular protective or visual role. Historically, European militaries were extremely particular about their soldiers' cleanliness and maintenance of their uniforms, to the point that soldiers were incentivized not to wear their uniform as much as they could get away with in order to keep it clean. The beret was cheap and widely available, so it became the de-facto standard wear for soldiers off duty or at camp. At the end of the nineteenth century, weapons technologies changed, and doctrine slowly evolved to match. Discipline became less important to combat performance and individual initiative was begrudgingly recognized as useful to rather than an impediment to military operations. This shift arrived unevenly, resulting in the creation of elite, nonstandard units - think commandos, alpine warfare specialists, etc. These units often had less strict disciplinary rules in practice, and many soldiers wore their more comfortable berets rather than their assigned headgear. Rather than punish this, the beret was adopted as a formal piece of kit. Today, it’s most often associated with officers and special forces - other soldiers wear the beret, but the old association with people outside the regulations and expectations has stuck in popular culture.
Compared to the other two types of enforcer headwear, there is nothing in the berets that stylistically refers to policing at all.
Caitlyn’s strike team wears berets both in topside presenting her three objectives to the council and in raids inside the undercity. The strike team is an irregular force that does things standard enforcers can’t, like weaponizing the Grey and using hextech weaponry. Enforcer presence within the undercity was already oppressive before, but now they are going on active attacks against it. The switch to wearing berets instead of stahlhelms symbolizes how this group is now acting as an invading force inside enemy territory.
Notably, Vi and Loris consistently do not wear the berets, hinting at how they disagree with the more extreme actions Caitlyn wants to take. However, as participants in the raids, they cannot wash their hands entirely of what is happening. Whatever lines they draw later — Vi at killing a child and Loris at Caitlyn’s appointment to military dictator — they still wear the gas masks and bear half the face of what terrorizes the undercity.
Conclusion
The different headwear that enforcers wear represents their relationship to the area they are in through similarities to real life military headgear. In topside, they wear parade hats that resemble the shaco and 8-point cap, and are seen as a mostly ceremonial body that exist to rescue civilians and investigate crime. In the undercity, they wear stahlhelms in the style of the infamous Waffen-SS, and are seen as oppressive occupiers expected to abuse their power. Later on, the strike team’s escalation of force is reflected through their change to berets, which are used by modern real-life militaries. This headwear acts as a potent visual shorthand showing how enforcers are seen by each region they are in, and where they are on the spectrum of law enforcement to warfare.
Honorable Mention: Bucket Hat
Piltover enforcer chase from s1e1 featuring a bucket-shaped hat.
The bucket hat only appears once in Arcane, when Vi and the other children are escaping from enforcers in topside. Because of how rare it is, it is not included in analysis and is only listed in here for completion’s sake.