Curious Origins of the TOP HAT
The Top Hat (sometimes also known by the nickname ‘topper’) is a kind of tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat worn by men throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, now usually worn only with morning dress & evening dress. The first top hat was made by John Hetherington in 1797; the hats became popular in the 1820s. Men commonly wore top hats for business, social events, and pleasure. They were crafted from stiffened felt made from beaver fur and later, due to the influence of Prince Albert, from silk. The Stove-pipe hat , made popular by Abraham Lincoln, were taller than the typical top-hat. Top hats caused a riot when they were first worn. The perpetrator was the haberdasher, Hetherington, who designed it, made it and was the first person to wear it into the street. According to a contemporary newspaper account, passersby panicked at the sight. Several women fainted, children screamed, dogs yelped, and an errand boy's arm was broken when he was trampled by the mob. Hetherington was hauled into court for wearing"a tall structure having a shining luster calculated to frighten timid people."
It was much ado about nothing. Later on, top hats were sometimes given an internal hinged frame, making them collapsible. Such hats are often called the “opera hat” or "Gibbus," though the term can also be synonymous with any top hat, or any tall formal men's hat. In the 1920s they were also often called “high hats".
In the latter half of the 19th century, the top hat gradually fell out of fashion, with the middle classes adopting bowler hats and soft felt hats such as fedoras, which were more convenient for city life, as well as being suitable for mass production. In comparison, a top hat needed to be handmade by a skilled hatter, with few young people willing to take up what was obviously a dying trade. The top hat became associated with the upper class, becoming a target for satirists and social critics. By the end of World War I it had become a rarity in everyday life. In the newly-formed Soviet Union, there was a fierce debate as to whether its diplomats should follow the international conventions and wear a top hat, with the pro-toppers winning the vote by a large majority.
In the History of VANITY FAIR Magazine many a top hat devotee has been depicted amongst the caricature chromolithograph
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