The Top Hat

                So you’ve done it; you’ve finally been invited to one of those swanky black tie affairs downtown.   Congratulations, you’ll get to rub elbows and talk politics with those ritzy socialites in some posh building with (dare I say) hors d’oeuvres, but, with the night approaching with every anxious breath, you’re not sure what to wear.  Don’t worry fellow hatters, today on the hebephrenic hatter we’re featuring the top hat, so, rest assured, those polished patricians and debutantes will know you’re no dilettante to style.

                The top hat was invented in 1797 by hatter John Hetherington, and, despite its all but subtle appearance, it didn’t gain mainstream popularity until the depletion of the American beaver created a necessity for a more economical hat.  In fact, the top hat came from all but subtle beginnings.  According to several websites when John Hetherington wore is first top hat it caused quite the stir; women fainted, children panicked, a boy was trampled by a mob and subsequently broke his arm, and our humble protagonist John Hetherington was arrested for what police might label to today as disturbing the peace.  According to Ms. Lou Carver a newspaper retelling of the event states that Hetherington was arrested for wearing “a tall structure having a shining luster calculated to frighten timid people” (Carver www.victoriana.com).   As you’ve guess the top hat created quite the commotion.

                So, as you dress for your night on the town, remember, that if you want to cause a stir, the top hat is your hat.  From disturbing the peace to clothing the aristocracy, the top hat is the hat for your upper class night on the town.

The Fedora

When looking into the growing trends in the head wear community, I’ve often found myself coming back to the ever popular fedora, and today we will be featuring Brixton’s own wool made, Jones style, wide brim, silk lined, teardrop shaped fedora with the temple indents. This type of fedora is made for special occasions, such as meeting with your therapist about your debilitating hat obsession or other hat related emergencies. Brixton makes, without exception, bar none the most well crafted fedoras I can afford, and, sentiment aside, the fedora I’m examining deserves intense review.

So I reached out to my family for their opinions on my hat, and the following is what ensued: “Hey what do you think of my hat?”

“Get out of my room! Fedoras are a girl’s hat.” Actually my sister might not be that far from the truth. The word fedora was coined by dramatist and playwright Victorien Sardou in his 1882 play “Fedora” which featured a female lead named, you guessed it, Fedora. She was featured in the play wearing a hat fashioned to look like today’s fedora, and, coincidentally, after the played gained popularity the fedora became a staple for women’s fashion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but I am a man I needed to get to the bottom of how the fedora became a men’s fashion statement.

So I asked my mother: “What do you think of my hat?”

“It reminds me of the hat my grandpa used to wear.” She might be on to something. The fedora quickly became popular for men as well, and in the early twenties it achieved mainstream notoriety for its gangster connotations. In fact, Al Capone was known to wear a fedora, and the film industry adopted this fashion for the archetypal gangster mystique in the fifties, but, gangsters aside, even orthodox Jews were and are known to wear black fedoras. So, fedoras have a rich history indeed. For more information about the fedora check out the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora
http://www.ehow.com/about_5041049_history-fedora-hats.html