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How to dress like a gentleman- A guide on the style of the gentleman's hat - how to dress like a true gent
STYLE
Mention Hollywood adventure hero Indiana Jones, and what immediately comes to mind His brown
hat, firmly affixed through thick and thin, from Lost Ark to Temple of Doom.
Now consider this: the Indiana Jones hat was built by Lock’s, creator of the bowler hat and in
business on the same fashionable London street for more than 300 years.
Such a remarkable conjunction bodes well for the long-term future of the hat, despite the
momentary disregard it has suffered. Hats serve a practical purpose – a quarter of all body heat is
lost through the head-and an important social one as an instrument of etiquette. For centuries, the
hat was required to be doffed to a person of higher social status, or greater age, and always to a
lady, and to her escort. ‘Hat honour’, it was called, and its niceties were quite as hard to master as
the nuanced subtleties of the Japanese bow.
Instinctively, the gentleman craves a hat.
More casual is its appeal. The more formal, the darker the hat needs to be. In the aftermath of the
Great War, when supplies of the hatter’s plush needed to make black silk toppers were unavailable
from Germany, those who determine such matters consequently put it about that the grey felt top
hat, previously proper only for
Ascot Week, would henceforth be correct wear for royal garden parties and society weddings, and
so it has remained.
The opera hat is a collapsible silk top hat in matt black set in a spring frame. This accessory to the
tailcoat is a descendent of the ‘gibus’ patented in 1840.
THE BOWLER
The bowler leads an active retirement as the symbol of an age now past. Books continue to be
written about it, and it is the butt of limitless anecdotes.
Lock’s persist to this day in calling it a ‘Coke’, after the customer who placed the first order. The
French like to point out that it should by rights be called a Beaulieu, since that was the name of the
feltmaker who built Lock’s prototype, before he anglicized it to Bowler. In America, it is known as a
derby, possibly after the 17th Earl of Derby, who wore it during his travels there.
Like the silk hat, the bowler suffered from the ravages of wartime shortage, of shellac in this case,
but it managed to make something of a comeback in the 1950s, as part of regulation ‘mufti’ for
Guards officers, for instance. Alas, it could not long escape the heavy burden of its storied part,
including the slights of the likes of Charlie Chaplin, and George V, who never could stand the sight
of one. Locked ion a limbo all of its own, at once too highbrow and too lowbrow, it took a final gust
from the democratizing winds of change to sweep it from its last strongholds in the City.
Might one wear it still? Certainly. As a talking point, there is nothing quite like it, so long as one has
the confidence to make the point
THE TRILBY
This robust family of hats knocked the bowler off its perch in the 1930s, and can be spotted upon
occasion demonstrating its practicality and diversity as it patiently awaits rediscovery.
Head of the family is the Homburg, elegant, stiff, in black or grey felt, with a turned-up and bound
brim. Following the Second World War, it was increasingly seen with a dinner jacket. In the league
of formality, it ranks after the top hat and bowler, but ahead of anything else.
The Anthony Eden is a tall-crowned black homburg, of softer material and great presence, made
famous in the 1930s by the British Foreign Secretary. The Borsalino is the great Italian hat-maker’s
contribution to the trilby family, with characteristic triangle pinch to the crown.
Mention Hollywood adventure hero Indiana Jones, and what immediately comes to mind His brown
hat, firmly affixed through thick and thin, from Lost Ark to Temple of Doom.
Now consider this: the Indiana Jones hat was built by Lock’s, creator of the bowler hat and in
business on the same fashionable London street for more than 300 years.
Such a remarkable conjunction bodes well for the long-term future of the hat, despite the
momentary disregard it has suffered. Hats serve a practical purpose – a quarter of all body heat is
lost through the head-and an important social one as an instrument of etiquette. For centuries, the
hat was required to be doffed to a person of higher social status, or greater age, and always to a
lady, and to her escort. ‘Hat honour’, it was called, and its niceties were quite as hard to master as
the nuanced subtleties of the Japanese bow.
Instinctively, the gentleman craves a hat.
More casual is its appeal. The more formal, the darker the hat needs to be. In the aftermath of the
Great War, when supplies of the hatter’s plush needed to make black silk toppers were unavailable
from Germany, those who determine such matters consequently put it about that the grey felt top
hat, previously proper only for
Ascot Week, would henceforth be correct wear for royal garden parties and society weddings, and
so it has remained.
The opera hat is a collapsible silk top hat in matt black set in a spring frame. This accessory to the
tailcoat is a descendent of the ‘gibus’ patented in 1840.
THE BOWLER
The bowler leads an active retirement as the symbol of an age now past. Books continue to be
written about it, and it is the butt of limitless anecdotes.
Lock’s persist to this day in calling it a ‘Coke’, after the customer who placed the first order. The
French like to point out that it should by rights be called a Beaulieu, since that was the name of the
feltmaker who built Lock’s prototype, before he anglicized it to Bowler. In America, it is known as a
derby, possibly after the 17th Earl of Derby, who wore it during his travels there.
Like the silk hat, the bowler suffered from the ravages of wartime shortage, of shellac in this case,
but it managed to make something of a comeback in the 1950s, as part of regulation ‘mufti’ for
Guards officers, for instance. Alas, it could not long escape the heavy burden of its storied part,
including the slights of the likes of Charlie Chaplin, and George V, who never could stand the sight
of one. Locked ion a limbo all of its own, at once too highbrow and too lowbrow, it took a final gust
from the democratizing winds of change to sweep it from its last strongholds in the City.
Might one wear it still? Certainly. As a talking point, there is nothing quite like it, so long as one has
the confidence to make the point
THE TRILBY
This robust family of hats knocked the bowler off its perch in the 1930s, and can be spotted upon
occasion demonstrating its practicality and diversity as it patiently awaits rediscovery.
Head of the family is the Homburg, elegant, stiff, in black or grey felt, with a turned-up and bound
brim. Following the Second World War, it was increasingly seen with a dinner jacket. In the league
of formality, it ranks after the top hat and bowler, but ahead of anything else.
The Anthony Eden is a tall-crowned black homburg, of softer material and great presence, made
famous in the 1930s by the British Foreign Secretary. The Borsalino is the great Italian hat-maker’s
contribution to the trilby family, with characteristic triangle pinch to the crown.
The pork pie, with low, round, dented crown, lacks serious intent, but goes with anything. The
snap brim is a sporty, elegant trilby of soft, napped felt that can be shaped at will and is able to
withstand being stuffed into a coat pocket.
THE BOATER
As with the bowler, the problem with the splendid old boater is that it is difficult to be taken
seriously when wearing one, now that it has come to be associated with waiters in cheap ’theme’
restaurants rather than with the Eton boating song. For the determined and the curious, it should
be noted that the boater enjoys the privileged summertime right to be worn with dinner jacket as
well as with sports wear.
THE PANAMA
This romantic reminder of Edwardian summers (when the king’s panama cost 75 guineas, or
several months of an average salary) merits a revival and may be on the brink of one, now that
the dangers of sunburn are recognized. A quality panama hat is pleated from fibres of the jippi-
jappa plant, a palm variety. The pleating is traditionally done under water in the cool hours of the
day. A panama should be soft and silky to the touch-the best are reputed to come from
Montechristi in Ecuador.
THE TWEED HAT
This sporty hat with narrow, floppy brim and soft crown that bends to one’s desires was able to
survive the hatless decades. It may be worn with casual suits or sports jackets.
THE CAP
In 1571, Parliament passed an act requiring all English males over the age of six (but excluding
the nobility) to wear a woolen cap on Sundays and holidays. The law, intended to stimulate the
wool trade, was repealed in 1597, but the cap with horizontal front brim of varying length has ever
since been the leisure headgear, even if today it primarily sports the colours of American baseball
teams.
snap brim is a sporty, elegant trilby of soft, napped felt that can be shaped at will and is able to
withstand being stuffed into a coat pocket.
THE BOATER
As with the bowler, the problem with the splendid old boater is that it is difficult to be taken
seriously when wearing one, now that it has come to be associated with waiters in cheap ’theme’
restaurants rather than with the Eton boating song. For the determined and the curious, it should
be noted that the boater enjoys the privileged summertime right to be worn with dinner jacket as
well as with sports wear.
THE PANAMA
This romantic reminder of Edwardian summers (when the king’s panama cost 75 guineas, or
several months of an average salary) merits a revival and may be on the brink of one, now that
the dangers of sunburn are recognized. A quality panama hat is pleated from fibres of the jippi-
jappa plant, a palm variety. The pleating is traditionally done under water in the cool hours of the
day. A panama should be soft and silky to the touch-the best are reputed to come from
Montechristi in Ecuador.
THE TWEED HAT
This sporty hat with narrow, floppy brim and soft crown that bends to one’s desires was able to
survive the hatless decades. It may be worn with casual suits or sports jackets.
THE CAP
In 1571, Parliament passed an act requiring all English males over the age of six (but excluding
the nobility) to wear a woolen cap on Sundays and holidays. The law, intended to stimulate the
wool trade, was repealed in 1597, but the cap with horizontal front brim of varying length has ever
since been the leisure headgear, even if today it primarily sports the colours of American baseball
teams.
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