Bowler or Top Hat

[Enli]

it might be too late, but the boyfriend and i (in orange county) nabbed our bowlers and top hats from all those halloween stores that popped up in october. those stores might still be hanging around having sales and trying to sell the rest of their wares off.

[Kew]

I favour the fedora or trilby myself, but I'm partial to the top hat. Unfortunately, I can't afford a good one.

[Flynn MacCallister]

there's more then two steampunk hats, what about the derby, the flatcap, the flying helmet? to name but a few...

(The only difference between a derby and a bowler is the country they were made in.)

[Vienna Fahrmann]

     Victorian Trading Company has a wool felt top hat in their catalogue, but it's $149US.

     Vienna

[GypsyGurl]

Hmmm...just remembered one of my fave hats is a Floppy Black Velvet Newsboy but I haven't worn it lately...must go & dig it out

<GG disappears into the darkness of her substantial wardrobe...>

[La Bricoleuse]

     Victorian Trading Company has a wool felt top hat in their catalogue, but it's $149US.

They seem to carry the same model of top hat found elsewhere for cheaper--at top-hat.com, the one they call the Caroler is only $90:

http://www.top-hats.com/2705.htm

...and the 1860 is $98:

http://www.top-hats.com/1014.htm

I can't say without putting my hands on them, but they look to all be the blocked felt top hat styles produced by a company called Hatcrafters. They are ok, serviceable, much better quality than say, the $10-20 top hats you find in costume shops around Halloween, but Hatcrafters does use both solvent/rubber glues and staples in their assembly process, which is generally a hallmark of the "popular" millinery trade.

A beautiful popular-priced top hat option is the straw top hat, unusual and fairly low cost for a decent quality top hat ($63):

http://www.top-hats.com/1017s.htm

(Hope i don't sound pedantic here, i don't mean to! I just get carried away talking about millinery since it's part of what i do for a living.)

[Duncan Hawthorne]

Don't forget the trilby, the boater, the fedora, the homburg, the newsboy cap, the flat cap, the wide-awake, the pork-pie, the cowboy hat...and those are just tradtionally "mens" styles!

(Leave it to the milliner to make things complicated.)

I have at least one of most of those. 

Hats - like socks - seem to be my other fetish.  I suppose eventually I'll discover belts in the middle somewhere....

I have a pumpkin-head.  I wear a 7 5/8 (24"/61cm more or less), and even some of those are tight, but I've had some good luck with some of the hat mongers to be found on Amazon.com and eBay.

My favorites are my grayish brown herringbone newsboy, and a black pork pie, but I also have a nice medium gray bowler.  I would like to find a nice top hat someday, but it would make me freakishly tall.

[aande]

Tophat... I have one of these, a good one Ill say!
http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.php?cPath=6&products_id=256

[Flynn MacCallister]

(Hope i don't sound pedantic here, i don't mean to! I just get carried away talking about millinery since it's part of what i do for a living.)

Pedantic? not at all. It is always excellent to have an expert's opinion.

[iapryx]

I think this bit of wonderful fantasy wouldn't be quite the same if the main character wasn't wearing a top hat.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VXytaD5AKyM

I rest my case.

[Vienna Fahrmann]

    Dear LaBricoleuse,

    THe more hat talk, the more fun.

     Vienna

[CapnHarlock]

Mlle. La Bricoleuse,

This thread leads me to another question for your particular expertise. (and I thank you again for 'wide-brimmed fedora' Shadow suggestion in the past)

What does one ask the haberdasher for, when referring to the shorter "almost-top-hat" style ? 

The best example I can think of is Mr. T. Petty, in many of his recorded images.  This seems to be a style more suited to goggles than the more formal tophat.

My thanks, in advance for your assistance 

[ChromaticTheory]

CapnHarlock,
I may be able to answer your question. I believe what you are referring to is a Coachman's hat, as shown here: http://www.gentlemansemporium.com/store/000397.php  Hopefully that is what you were looking for, otherwise I would that any good haberdasher would have some idea of what "shorter almost-top-hat" referred to.

[Quebrith]

What does one ask the haberdasher for, when referring to the shorter "almost-top-hat" style ? 

I have recently acquired the "Ice" model from The Berkeley Hat Co. depicted here: http://berkeleyhat.com/tophats1.html. Somehow, I suspect that is not the true common name of that particular style.   But might it be the "coachman's hat"  to which you are referring? I've encountered that mentioned elsewhere....

The hat, btw, does go nicely with goggles. I'm rather happy with it-- a high quality felt, with a nice lining. It's no silk topper, but great for the price. The company was very responsive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT--> Heavens, I replied without even having read ChromaticTheory's entry... which is rather humorous, when I wrote that I saw it "mentioned elsewhere", though I feel rather an idiot.

[La Bricoleuse]

Captain,

I suspect what you want to ask for is properly called either a low topper or a John Bull (image googling ought to give you several examples). John Bull as a trade name for the style comes from the cartoon character, who wears this style and dates back ages and ages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull

The John Bull  term carries a connotation of a flared crown, whereas low topper also encompasses cylindrical-crown styles.

"Coachman's hat" is, i believe, more modern parlance (though i don't have a reference to corroborate this opinion). Contemporary haberdashers/milliners are certainly likely to recognize the term and show you samples of the style you seek, but were you, say, transported back in time to 1880 however, a gentlemen's haberdasher of the era would probably be puzzled by the request. He'd probably assume you were rather eccentric and self-absorbed, politely engineer a diplomatic way to peer out front of the shop to note what style your coachman was wearing, then steer you toward whatever he had in that mode.

I've also heard it referred to as a "squire's topper," but i don't know that that's a universally-recognized (or historical) proper term for it either. It's evocative though--also carries a flared-crown connotation--and, like "coachman's hat" will probably communicate what you intend to a haberdasher.

I take it you are in the market for more headwear?

[Govenor Stanley Cobb]

Top hat of course...

Only in respect of my own engineering hero  I.K. Brunel

[Sir Tippler Ames]

 I love the top hat! however these sites are wonderful
but the site I order from is
http://www.solanoswesternwear.com/vintagehats.htm
Solano's is in Raton, NM and they carry high quality hats for
Philmont Scout Ranch's interp camps.

[Gnome]

I'm partial to the Bowler cap myself... Being tall and well-built, top hats manage to make me look both gaunt and cartoonish. Bowlers just frame my face well without screwing with the aesthetics of my overall appearance.

[Flynn MacCallister]

Being in need of a hat to serve as a summer sun-hat, I just purchased a trilby-style hat (one of those silly, cheap fashion-type ones, which is sufficient for my purposes) whose outer material is, of all things, hessian. Straw-coloured, with a darker brown hatband, also hessian, and perhaps at a sufficient distance glanced sufficiently briefly, it may look like straw. Maybe. I would post a picture were it not for the fact I have no camera.

Sorry, just wanted to share. I'm very happy with it ^__^

[Insanity]

Both! At the same time!

I like top hats better, but bowlers fit me better. Unfortunately, I own one of each, and both are too big. Curse this tiny skull of mine!

[La Bricoleuse]

Both! At the same time!

I like top hats better, but bowlers fit me better. Unfortunately, I own one of each, and both are too big. Curse this tiny skull of mine!

How too-big are they?

Because if you are near a fabric store that sells headliner foam (like what lines the interior roof of a car), you can buy 1/8 yard of it and cut a thin strip, then whipstitch it into the headsize opening of the hat. Unless the hat is like hugely too big. In which case, sometimes you can still make this work with weatherstripping foam, but that feels yuckier against the head than headliner foam (which has a nice fabric-covered side to it). Most of the chain stores (Jo-Ann Fabrics, Hancock Fabrics, Minnesota Fabrics, etc.) sell headliner cut to order.

[MrFats]

I would advise you to listen to the lady, she knows vast amounts about cloth and thread, among other things.

[HAC]

What about the classic collapsible opera hat, invented by Antoine Gibus  in 1823, and made famous by Fred Astaire in the Movie "Top Hat"?

http://www.villagehatshop.com/satin_collapsible_top-hat.html



Cheers
Harold

[danger]

A bowler for me, I am not a fan of tall hats.
I need to order a gray one soon.

[Vienna Fahrmann]

     Dear Harold,

    Thank you, I had heard those hats called Gibus, but never knew why.

     Vienna