Top Hats

[Thomas Alleman]

I searched the forums and found nothing on what are good men's top hats and who makes a nice one. Also what is you thoughts on originals being used? Do what you see allot as in the way of an original not the correct period or is there not allot of difference in them. Please point me in the right direction.

[Jeff Prechtel]

Thomas-

Tim Bender makes excellent, correct period headgear.
Contact him and tell him what you want. If you have
any visual reference to the style of top hat you want Tim will work
with you on a custom job. He also has a couple of styles available on his website.
Tim does quality work, is great to work with and delivers on time.

Tim's contact info is in the the approved vendor link

Best regards

[CYoungJSU]

Thomas,

I agree that Tim Bender is the man to call. I ordered a shag top hat from him about a year ago and it is perfect! After speaking to him on the phone, I e-mailed a picture of a topper I wanted, and it came out wonderful. Take my word, his top hats are the best and most accurate I have seen. Plus, he is a super guy to work with.

Chris

[fahtz]

As afra as what makes a good top hat, you must include eveything you do with other good perios headwear. Materials, constructions, shape, dimensions... Top hats are a little more tircky in that they became REALLY popular after the war and so many different styles were around. Tim makes the best two styles for our period, and can make them out of some sweet materials as well.

[CYoungJSU]

Let's do a little comparative analysis. I have attached some thumbnails of the top hat Tim made for me as well as some daguerreotype images dating in the 1850-1860 range. I believe you can judge for yourself. I also have an original 1890s top hat, and it is considerably shorter in height and brim width. You may also want to consider Dr. Debbie Henderson's The Top Hat: An Illustrated History to get a better understanding of the top hats in use before, during, and after the war.

Chris

[Motown]

Top hats are for nancies Tom

However, I do recall seing a photograph of some prisoners from the Army of Tennesee maybe at Camp Douglas, where a dashing rogue is wearing a top-hat. There's a crop of part of it on Clearwater Hat's website. If I remember correctly there's a guy wearing a plaid shirt in the front row.

Does anyone else know this picture, or did I just make it up?

[John Legg]

Brian white showed me a picture of two Federal soldiers that Cut their issue hats to look like top hats. Ill see if its still on my computer, if not ill look around for it. Its quite interesting!

John

[Thomas Alleman]

Yeah no one in the MLK could wear one because they are for men of status and influence. Not your run of the mill, oK enough of that, HAHA. Yeah I see allot on Ebay and it s hard to recognize a period hat from latter. I know beaver hats are still popular but it seems silk is coming into fashion also. Well thanks for the pics.

[Ian McWherter]

Good images Mr Young.

Many people don't realize, but the overwhelming majority of top hats worn in the mid-19th century were made from silk plush on a lacquered cotton or cardboard base. These were hugely popular and manufactured in Europe (principally in Lyons, France) and in the United States (American silk plush toppers were considered equal to the French) by the millions. The fact that you'll find 5 original silk plush top hats for every wool one, would suggest their popularity. What makes that statistic even more amazing is the fact that these silk plush hats were only meant to last about 3 months for city use and stronger ones, made for country use, were made to last about a year. After that you threw your hat in the trash and bought a new one. These hats were cheap and readily available, in fact the "cheaper" quality silk plush hats had a glossier shine so they were often preferred by "gents" and "dandies". We often forget that our mid-19th century forebearers lived in a disposable, materialistic consumer society as well.

When you look at original photographs there's no mistaking these silk hats, the shine is a dead give-away. No wool felt, I don't care how good the quality is or how much shellac you pour on it, can shine like that! The unfortunate problem is "hatter's plush" is no longer manufactured in the world today, the last company doing so was in Lyons, France in the 1980s. There was a falling out with the family that owned the company and the looms were destroyed (I heard that someone burned them). One of these days, if I can ever get caught up with my sewing, I'm going to make one of these top hats out of some silk plush I managed to find.

That said, I'll join the chorus of individuals singing Tim Bender's praises. I too own one of his delectable shag body wool toppers and couldn't be happier.

[CYoungJSU]

Now thinking of it, I believe two of those images should be attributed to you Mr. McWherter...