Vintage Clothing History Guide | Mens Hats continued
Trilby
The Trilby is named after the female heroine of a novel of the same name written by George du Maurier. The novel was serialised in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine and was also made into a stage play. Trilby O’Ferral, the beautiful artist’s model who fell under the spell of Svengali, wore the soft indented felt hat in an 1895 dramatisation.
After the turn of the century the Trilby became popular as men rejected the more formal stiff hats that were the vogue of the previous century. The Trilby was very much an American fashion but quickly spread to the rest of the world helped by the medium of film.
Fedora
The name Fedora comes from the heroine of French playwright Victorien Sardou’s drama presented in Paris in 1882. The hat soon became popular with men in the same way as the trilby.
Panana
Panama hats are made exclusively in Ecuador and are hand-woven from the Tequilla Palm. The origins of the hat go back to the 16th century when the Incas were the first to use the Tequilla palm to make hats.
The term Panama comes from the number of workers building the Panama Canal who used the hat for protection against the sun.
In 1855, a Frenchman living in Ecuador took some samples to the World Exhibition in Paris and the finest quality panama was presented to Emperor Napoleon III.
Every Panama hat is unique as the making of the hats is a cottage industry and some of the finest panamas are made in Montecristi. The finest woven hats can take up to 6 months to weave and can command prices of up to £1,000. The best hats have to be woven in the right conditions and especially humidity. The weavers split the fibre razor thin and plait ring after ring of palm fibre constantly dipping their finger tips into water.
The finest panamas have a very silky texture and when held up to the light you can see a spiral of rings together with the weaver’s signature. These rings are called ‘vueltas’ and the more there are determines the quality of the hat. The cheaper quality hats may only have around ten ‘vueltas’ whereas a Montecristi Superino may have up to forty.
Panamas are exported from Ecuador in the form of hoods. These are then blocked by specialist hat factories into the two principal shapes which is the Trilby and the Folding Panama. The origin of the black band on the Panama dates back to 1901 when Queen Victoria died.
Top hat
The top hat was originally a French invention and quickly became the status symbol for the nineteenth century gentleman and replaced the cocked tricorns and bicorns that had been fashionable in the previous century.
The first top hats were made from beaver but a new material appeared called ‘hatter’s plush’ which is the trade’s term for what the public think of as silk. It was very fine silk shag, applied to the felt to give it a nap.
The first man who was credited with wearing this new creation in London, the hatter John Hetherington, nearly caused a riot and was arrested for wearing a hat that was ‘calculated to frighten timid people’ (St James’s Gazette).
After this poor start the top hat soon became the conventional headwear for gentleman in Britain, Europe and the United States. It was seen as a symbol of wealth and social standing and able to enhance the wearer by making them seem taller, more refined and handsome.
Back in France a Monsieur Gibus had invented a collapsible top hat known as the chapeau claque. This made storage much easier and could be easily placed under the seat of an opera house which gave the hat the name “opera hat” or the wearer could hold it under his arm giving the hat a third name “ chapeau bras” (arm hat).
Today top hats are still worn all over the world at weddings and if you are invited to the Royal Enclosure at the Royal Ascot race meeting gentleman must be wearing either a grey or black top hat.
Go to page 1
