To the modern eye, tophats may seem outdated, but throughout centuries tophats were a symbol of wealth and power. By the middle of the twentieth century, the tophat had mostly been reserved for older gentlemen of influence with leaders such as Winston Churchill and Woodrow Wilson both sporting the tophats. The classic tophat was made of the finest silk, linens and fabrics. As tophats became less popular, the manufacturing of tophats did away with fine silk and traded for hare fur since the late twentieth century. The length of tophats reached the pinnacle of height during the early Victorian era, reaching up to 20 cm and throughout centuries and becoming shorter until stopping around 12 or 13 cm in the early twentieth century. When they were popular, tophats were for different occasions. Grey hats became mostly reserved for weddings in the later part of the twentieth century. In the height of popularity, tophats came to symbolize the age of the gentleman and eventually became satirized by social critics and socialists who viewed the tophat as a symbol of capitalism and bourgeois influence. There were many different occasions for tophats and there were times when different forms of tophats became suitable for the occasion. For instance, wider brimmed hats were reserved for important funerals. It was wool for pallbearers and classic fur for undertakers. The speaker especially made himself known by wearing a black mourning veil sticking from the brim of the hat. There were also riding tophats for ladies who enjoyed riding on horseback. The opera tophat was collapsible to maintain as much room as possible in the theater.
Interesting note:
There were earlier versions of the tophat dating way back to the end of the sixteenth century which were decorated with plumed feathers for both genders. However, the tophat as we know it today got off to a shaky start when a fashion designer and owner of a London store by the name of John Hetherington started wearing the tophat in public in the 1840s. To show how fragile people were during the early nineteenth century, the first time he sported the tophat in public, people were so shocked that crowds gathered and fragile women fainted in the streets and eventually led him had to paying hefty fines for causing a public nuisance. Good thing the Victorians weren’t around during the age of spiky hair and loud clothing of the late twentieth century. They would have literally had heart attacks.
