Top hats & bowlers
Sep. 12th, 2019 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mightymads posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
victorian221bI resumed reading How to Be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman and thought to discuss some titbits.
“The most prestigious hat throughout Victoria’s entire reign was the top hat. Originally, the top hat was extraordinarily large – fourteen inches high for the most flamboyant of rich, young men. But within ten years it had settled down to the ten inches in height that looks familiar to modern eyes. There was a range of top hats on the market, of varying qualities; the practised eye could discern which marked out the businessman, which the lord. Yet the top hat was never truly affordable. A basic one could be bought by a factory worker for around two weeks’ wages. At the other end of the scale, the very best silk topper, with its own special leather box for storage and transportation, would cost a factory worker the equivalent of three months’ wages. These were hats that spoke of wealth. Their long currency as upper-class headwear also came to give them an aura of respectability beyond the vagaries of fleeting fashion.”
“The bowler hat began life in 1849 when William Coke, a customer of shopkeeper brothers William and Thomas Bowler, asked them to design a hat that would be robust and easy to keep on. He wanted something strong enough to withstand the outdoor life without expensive damage but also something smart that would give his men protection. Within only a few years, bowler hats were being widely worn by the gentlemen of shooting parties, as well as by gamekeepers. When clerks, bankers and managers adopted the bowler as their customary headwear, it became a symbol of middle-class status within the towns and cities.”
The bowler is traditionally associated with Watson while the top hat—with Holmes. I think it’s reflective of their characters, Watson being a practical man, and Holmes somewhat of a dandy (except those adaptations where he sports a deerstalker forever, even in town XD)
“The most prestigious hat throughout Victoria’s entire reign was the top hat. Originally, the top hat was extraordinarily large – fourteen inches high for the most flamboyant of rich, young men. But within ten years it had settled down to the ten inches in height that looks familiar to modern eyes. There was a range of top hats on the market, of varying qualities; the practised eye could discern which marked out the businessman, which the lord. Yet the top hat was never truly affordable. A basic one could be bought by a factory worker for around two weeks’ wages. At the other end of the scale, the very best silk topper, with its own special leather box for storage and transportation, would cost a factory worker the equivalent of three months’ wages. These were hats that spoke of wealth. Their long currency as upper-class headwear also came to give them an aura of respectability beyond the vagaries of fleeting fashion.”
“The bowler hat began life in 1849 when William Coke, a customer of shopkeeper brothers William and Thomas Bowler, asked them to design a hat that would be robust and easy to keep on. He wanted something strong enough to withstand the outdoor life without expensive damage but also something smart that would give his men protection. Within only a few years, bowler hats were being widely worn by the gentlemen of shooting parties, as well as by gamekeepers. When clerks, bankers and managers adopted the bowler as their customary headwear, it became a symbol of middle-class status within the towns and cities.”
The bowler is traditionally associated with Watson while the top hat—with Holmes. I think it’s reflective of their characters, Watson being a practical man, and Holmes somewhat of a dandy (except those adaptations where he sports a deerstalker forever, even in town XD)
