At Historic Replicas, we have a comprehensive selection of commemorative replica helmets from both World Wars. Fashion began to evolve more rapidly during the 20th century, thanks to improvements in mass communication and overseas travel, and German helmets changed a great deal between the wars. The most well known World War I headgear was the German pickelhaube, a black helmet of hardened leather adorned with a metal spike. The helmet was originally designed in 1842 and widely used until the middle of World War I. Several other countries copied it, including Mexico, Chile, Russia, Norway, and Sweden. In a way, the pickelhaube’s fanciful design is emblematic the war itself, and the cultural shift it represents. World War I was unlike any other war in history up to that point.