The top hat is the only hat style that achieved complete dominance of Western men's formal dress, held that position for nearly a century, and then retreated almost entirely from everyday use to survive as pure ceremony. No other hat's trajectory is this dramatic or this complete. Understanding why the top hat rose, dominated, and declined without disappearing entirely requires understanding not just fashion history but the specific social functions that hats have served in Western culture.
The Design: What Makes a Top Hat
A top hat is defined by a tall, cylindrical or slightly tapered crown with a flat or slightly curved top, and a narrow brim that projects horizontally in a flat plane. The defining visual is the tall vertical of the crown, which can range from approximately 14 cm in moderate versions to 18 cm or more in the very tall stovepipe versions associated with the mid-19th century.
Construction evolved significantly across the hat's history:
- Beaver felt: the original luxury top hat material from the 17th through early 19th century -- expensive, water-resistant, and with a fine texture. Beaver populations in North America were significantly reduced by the hat trade demand
- Silk plush: a silk fabric with a deep pile that could be brushed to produce the characteristic gleam of the formal top hat. The silk plush top hat (the 'opera hat' or 'silk hat') was the dominant formal option from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century
- Collapsible felt: the opera hat or gibus -- a collapsible version that could be flattened by mechanical springs and carried under the arm in theatres and opera houses -- was an ingenious Victorian solution to the problem of managing a tall hat in seated venues
The Rise: 1780s-1830s
The top hat emerged in the late 18th century as part of a broader shift in men's dress toward simpler, more uniform styles that accompanied the Industrial Revolution and the cultural shifts following the French Revolution. The three-cornered tricorne that had dominated 18th century men's dress was replaced in the first decades of the 19th century by the top hat, which spread across social classes in Britain, Europe, and North America with remarkable speed.
By the 1820s and 1830s, the top hat was standard men's headwear across virtually all social contexts in Britain. Working men wore felt versions; upper-class men wore silk plush. The same hat form across classes was unusual in hat history, where style typically tracked closely to social position.
The Golden Era: 1840s-1900s
The Victorian top hat in its silk plush version became the definitive article of formal men's dress. It was worn in every formal context: business, church, social calls, theatre, sporting events (horse racing, cricket, rowing), and any occasion where a man needed to be properly dressed. The top hat was so embedded in Victorian masculine identity that cartoonists depicted 'the gentleman' or 'the capitalist' in a top hat as an immediate visual shorthand -- a usage that continues in editorial cartoons to the present day.
Abraham Lincoln wore a distinctive tall stovepipe top hat that became one of the most recognisable president-hat associations in American history. His habit of storing documents inside the hat's interior created the image of the hat as a filing system as much as a hat -- a specific piece of Lincoln mythology that has been referenced continuously since.
The Decline: 1920s-1960s
The top hat's decline tracked the broader decline of formal men's dress in the 20th century. Several factors contributed:
- The First World War's disruption of formal dress norms and the introduction of more practical, less ceremonial masculine dress
- The rise of the motor car, which made top hats physically awkward -- the height of the hat required vehicles with high roofs that became increasingly rare as car design evolved
- The fedora's displacement of the top hat in business and semi-formal contexts throughout the 1920s and 1930s
- The broader casualisation of dress in the post-World War Two period
By the 1950s, the top hat had retreated almost entirely to two contexts: formal events where morning dress or white tie was required, and theatrical and comedic use.
Surviving as Ceremony
The top hat's survival is as pure ceremony and symbol. It appears today at:
- White tie occasions (the most formal social events) where the silk top hat is part of the prescribed formal dress
- Morning dress occasions (formal weddings, Royal Ascot, certain race meetings) where the grey top hat is part of the morning suit ensemble
- Equestrian competitions (dressage in particular, where a top hat or safety helmet in traditional top hat shape is part of the competition dress)
- Magicians, as the historical stage magician costume that has become a theatrical shorthand independent of any actual hat-wearing tradition
Explore formal hat styles and classic hat history at Hatloom.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is a top hat worn today?
The top hat in contemporary dress appears primarily at white tie events (formal black and white formal occasions with the highest dress code) and at morning dress occasions such as Royal Ascot, formal British weddings with a morning dress code, and certain race meetings. In the equestrian world, top hats or their equivalent safety-certified versions are worn in dressage competition. Outside these specific contexts, a top hat in everyday or business dress would be a very strong deliberate statement rather than a conventional choice.
What is the difference between a morning coat and a top hat at a formal British event?
Morning coat (morning dress) is the tailored jacket with a cutaway front worn at formal British daytime events like Royal Ascot and formal weddings. The morning coat is worn with striped trousers, a waistcoat, and typically a grey top hat in this context. The grey top hat used with morning dress is slightly lower in crown height and more casual in character than the black silk plush top hat used with white tie evening dress -- both are top hats but they serve different occasions in the British formal dress hierarchy. The morning coat and top hat combination is specifically a daytime formal look; white tie with the black silk top hat is an evening formal look.
Did Abraham Lincoln really use his hat as a briefcase?
Lincoln did use his stovepipe hat for document storage, by multiple contemporaneous accounts. He was observed and recalled by contemporaries as carrying letters, notes, and documents inside the hat. The practice was not unusual for the era -- the tall interior of a stovepipe hat provided genuine storage space, and Lincoln was known for practical adaptations of available tools. Whether the specific mythology of Lincoln's hat as a 'briefcase' has accumulated more lore than the reality justifies is possible, but the basic practice is well-documented.