Top hat colours

[NCW]

Dear all,

I have a question about a detail on which I seem unable to find any discussion here. Top hats are either grey or black, and I think with white tie black is always worn (in cases when the top hat is correct with white tie). The only times I have seen pictures of the grey are at weddings, when a morning suit is worn, and at Ascot, with anything, though it seems in both instances black is also acceptable.

What are exactly the correct rules for the colour of a top hat, and are there other situations where a grey hat would be worn?

[storeynicholas]

Originally the invention of John Hetherington at the end of the 18th century, when they were made of beaver fur felt, later, toppers used to come in many different colours of hatters' plush napped silk. Lock & Co have a copper-coloured on in their collection, which was the signature hat of a music hall performer. Black silk hats used to come in hunting-weight and town-weight and the best were marked inside 'Extra Quality'. famous makers were: Lock & Co, Lincoln Bennett, Patey, Heath, Herbert Johnson (Lincoln bennett's apprentice) and Scott - amongst others. They were suitable for all formal occasions, outside Court settings - when an unwearable beaver cocked hat chapeau bras or 'arm hat' - was carried with Court suit. Later on in the early 20th century, the opera hat was carried with alternative Court dress which basically comprised white tie with evening breeches (except for levees when trousers were permitted). The opera hat is a collapsible ribbed silk hat invented by an ingenious Frenchman called M. Gibus; another name for it is an opera claque. Grey toppers in drab shell felt were the invention of Lock & Co (presumably with some official imprimatur) after WWI (when hatters' plush was in short supply) to be worn specifically at Royal Ascot, no doubt in an effort to cheer a generation which had lost so many. The young Winston Churchill used to wear his about town but they were originally devised for Royal Ascot and many owners used to store their grey toppers at Lock's out of season. Sir (Edwin) Hardy Amies said that a grey topper made one look like the doorman of a Dutch Hotel and some people do not wear them at all, even to Royal Ascot. On Ladies' day, a black topper has always been preferred, in any event. A town-weight fixed topper would be perfectly in order with white tie or morning dress for any occasion. Grey top hats (in hatters' plush) had been made before Lock's post WWI felt invention for Ascot - and sometimes, they were called 'white hats' - hence the nickname of 'White Hat' Willis for whom the famous tea clpper Cutty Sark was built in 1869. With white tie, an opera hat is also correct. Grey toppers are hired out for weddings. However, apart from Hardy Amies observation, they should really be reserved for Royal Ascot. Black toppers remained the daily wear of stock jobbers in the city down to 1986 and were still in procedural use in the Houses of Parliament until reforms, in 1998, abolished their use in debates - so altogether a hat which survived in (albeit restricted) daily use for 200 years.
NJS

[NCW]

That is a very nice top hat history, many of the details of which are new to me. Thanks for the fantastic response.

[storeynicholas]

NCW - That is very kind of you - just goes to show that the youth which many claimed that I started misspending when I about 5 years old - produced something! I have added a little bit about 'White Hat' Willis.
NJS

[le.gentleman]

NJS, A pleasure to read and very informative - Thanks!

[storeynicholas]

Thank you le gentleman. I've just remembered also that, since the last looms that made the hatters' plush were lost (smashed up in an argument between two brothers in France) the modern black toppers are again made with a mixture of beaver fur felt (which was the original material in 1797) to give them a gloss which Belgian rabbit fur felt just does not have. However, there are several businesses with stocks of vintage silk hats but the larger sizes (for modern heads) are rarer and more expensive than the smaller sizes. I had several of these once (now reduced to 1, on our move out here) but Ede & Ravenscroft took some of them, including a very fine French hat with such a shape that one could easily say made it something of a 'Sophia Loren' of a hat! It was, though, in poor condition and I just had it because it was a fine example of a shape that we will not see produced again - the maker had a magical flair - that je ne sais quoi that we all here recognize in something which represents the sum of perfect accomplishment. I believe that it is on show on a shelf in the Chancery Lane shop.Of items of clothing that can be admired even without a wearer, hats and shoes and boots probably comprise the whole list. Just reverting to the question of colours - in 1940s Hollywood musicals sometimes, you see show girls wearing all sorts of coloured toppers and even in the 1930s/1940s Hollywood films of the Dickens' stories, you can see what are plainly (although the films were monochrome) silver and copper coloured toppers.
NJS