Hats: Some Fun Facts.

[GHT]

Black taxis in London have a tall roof so that bowler hats can fit in.

If you’ve been in a London black taxi then you might have noticed that the roof is very tall! They were designed like this so that bowler hats could fit in. You need lots of room if you’re wearing one of those!

In North Dakota it's illegal to wear a hat whilst dancing.

There are some laws that are hard to believe and this is one of them! In Fargo, North Dakota, USA, it’s illegal to wear a hat whilst dancing. It’s also illegal to wear a hat in a place where dancing might take place. So, be careful!

Do you know of any hat facts?

 

[shopkin]

Black taxis in London have a tall roof so that bowler hats can fit in.

If you’ve been in a London black taxi then you might have noticed that the roof is very tall! They were designed like this so that bowler hats could fit in. You need lots of room if you’re wearing one of those!

In North Dakota it's illegal to wear a hat whilst dancing.

There are some laws that are hard to believe and this is one of them! In Fargo, North Dakota, USA, it’s illegal to wear a hat whilst dancing. It’s also illegal to wear a hat in a place where dancing might take place. So, be careful!

Do you know of any hat facts?

It has again become fashionable for Orca killer whales to wear salmon on their heads. A fad that had died out about thirty years ago.

 

[GHT]

It has again become fashionable for Orca killer whales to wear salmon on their heads. A fad that had died out about thirty years ago.

That sounded so far fetched I had to check it out.............and you are right. Amazing!

There was once a hat tax here in the UK!
Between 1784 and 1811, there was hat tax in the UK. William Pitt was the Prime Minister at the time and put this tax into action! Hat sellers had to get a licence to sell them.

The buyers had to pay extra on top of the cost of their hat for the tax which would go to the government.
The government believed that wealthier people would be able to afford expensive hats and so this was a good way to tax the rich.

Nowadays it's not only hats that are taxed, most non essential items attract what is known as VAT Value Added Tax.

 

[GHT]

Queen Elizabeth the First decreed that anyone over the age of seven must wear a hat/cap on Sundays.

People used to have to wear hats on Sundays and holidays. In 1571, Elizabeth l ruled that everyone had to wear a hat on those days. The rule was for anyone over the age of 7!

A chef's hat has 100 folds to represent 100 ways to cook an egg.

Chefs traditionally wear big, white hats which are known as toques. They have 100 folds in them. The folds represent 100 different ways that you can cook an egg. I can think of boiled, scrambled, poached & fried, that's about it.

 

[The Hatted Professor]

Fun facts: the names Fedora and Trilby come from men's hats named after plays, not women's hats worn by their female stars, as conventional wisdom and urban legends would have us believe.

 

[shopkin]

Queen Elizabeth the First decreed that anyone over the age of seven must wear a hat/cap on Sundays.

People used to have to wear hats on Sundays and holidays. In 1571, Elizabeth l ruled that everyone had to wear a hat on those days. The rule was for anyone over the age of 7!

A chef's hat has 100 folds to represent 100 ways to cook an egg.

Chefs traditionally wear big, white hats which are known as toques. They have 100 folds in them. The folds represent 100 different ways that you can cook an egg. I can think of boiled, scrambled, poached & fried, that's about it.

The law requiring everyone to wear caps was a means of supporting the textile industry. They must have had a lobbyist.

 

[GHT]

Fun facts: the names Fedora and Trilby come from men's hats named after plays, not women's hats worn by their female stars, as conventional wisdom and urban legends would have us believe.

You are rtght:
The fedora was first introduced in the 1890s by a French hat maker named Victorien Sardou. It was named after the title character in Sardou's play, "Fedora," which premiered in 1882. The play was a sensation, and the hat soon became a popular accessory for men in France and other European countries.

The Trilby hat's name derives from the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby. A hat of this style was worn in the first London production of the play, and promptly came to be called "a Trilby hat."

The law requiring everyone to wear caps was a means of supporting the textile industry. They must have had a lobbyist.

You might be on to something there: The Cappers Act of 1571 was Introduced to support the domestic cap-making industry, the law stated that every person over six years old (with the exception of some members of society, such as maids, lords or knights) must wear a woollen cap on Sundays and holidays.

The world’s tallest hat is 4.8 metres tall.
It’s so tall that it received a Guinness World Record! The hat was made by Odilon Ozare who is a milliner from Tampa, Florida in the USA. To get the world record he had to put on the hat and walk over 10 metres!

 

[The Hatted Professor]

You are rtght:
The fedora was first introduced in the 1890s by a French hat maker named Victorien Sardou. It was named after the title character in Sardou's play, "Fedora," which premiered in 1882. The play was a sensation, and the hat soon became a popular accessory for men in France and other European countries.

The Trilby hat's name derives from the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby. A hat of this style was worn in the first London production of the play, and promptly came to be called "a Trilby hat."

Sardou was just an author, not a hat maker. Knox actually introduced the hat here in NYC in conjunction with the play’s American premiere. Other manufacturers quickly copied its due to its success.

 

[Frunobulax]

Fun facts: the names Fedora and Trilby come from men's hats named after plays, not women's hats worn by their female stars, as conventional wisdom and urban legends would have us believe.

I could have sworn at one time you posted an advertisement, pre-dating the play, which referred to a soft felt as a"fedora."

I must have misremembered, or taken the context incorrectly.

 

[The Hatted Professor]

I could have sworn at one time you posted an advertisement, pre-dating the play, which referred to a soft felt as a"fedora."

I must have misremembered, or taken the context incorrectly.

Maybe you're thinking of this ad, from the New York Sun on September 26, 1883, just before the American premiere.

 

[Frunobulax]

Maybe you're thinking of this ad, from the New York Sun on September 26, 1883, just before the American premiere. View attachment 661742

That looks like it. Thanks for the clarification!

 

[GHT]

Did you know that the saying “mad as a hatter” comes from milliners using mercury in their workshops. Milliners used to use Mercury to extract the fur from rabbits and to improve their stiffening solvents, but it was known to have sent the average milliner barking mad before long.

 

[Rmccamey]

From elsewhere on the web...

"Although there is no “official” word for hat collector, there has been some attempt to create one. Millinophilia, derived from hat maker, or milliner is one possibility and a second is capellophile, using the word capel which is latin for hat or headdress."

Then there is the "Millinerist - someone who collects hats, just because!"

Of course, there are the other tortured souls who have " Kapelaphobia", or hat phobia (not to be confused with Kapellaphobia) which is the fear of hats.

 

[GHT]

Interesting point having a noun for a hat connoisseur, out of curiosity I checked to see if a shoe collector had acquired any such collective name. There was none, but I did smile at the suggestion of "Sneakerhead!"

An interesting snippet from a journalist in Harper's Bazaar:
"I am (re)watching the 1980's Miss Marple shows, and oh my goodness I want men in hats back. Why did that die off? Men just look so much more put-together and polished with their beautiful dark plain hats
And that so-British tradition of uttering people's names when you're leaving their presence, it only works with a hat. I would like that to come back too, please and thank you, so charming."

 

[RickP]

You are rtght:
The fedora was first introduced in the 1890s by a French hat maker named Victorien Sardou. It was named after the title character in Sardou's play, "Fedora," which premiered in 1882. The play was a sensation, and the hat soon became a popular accessory for men in France and other European countries.

The Trilby hat's name derives from the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby. A hat of this style was worn in the first London production of the play, and promptly came to be called "a Trilby hat."


You might be on to something there: The Cappers Act of 1571 was Introduced to support the domestic cap-making industry, the law stated that every person over six years old (with the exception of some members of society, such as maids, lords or knights) must wear a woollen cap on Sundays and holidays.

The world’s tallest hat is 4.8 metres tall.
It’s so tall that it received a Guinness World Record! The hat was made by Odilon Ozare who is a milliner from Tampa, Florida in the USA. To get the world record he had to put on the hat and walk over 10 metres!

View attachment 661679

Man! Thats a LOT of Rabbit fur!

 

[GHT]

Some presidential hat wearers.

Do you know who this famous American hat wearer is?
Born in Brooklyn her name is Jenny Jerome. She married a British aristocrat and became Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
In his speech to the joint session of US Congress in 1941, Churchill joked:
"By the way, I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British instead of the other way around, I might have got here on my own. "

 

[shopkin]

Funny, because Kennedy (with his good hair) has been accused of ushering in the beginning of the end to the American hat-wearing culture. I think presidents just follow the current popular culture and, if anyone, it started with Eisenhower. He went from wearing his military garrison cap to a golf cap. Eisenhower also broke tradition by wearing a black Homburg instead of a top hat at his inauguration

 

[GHT]

Funny, because Kennedy (with his good hair) has been accused of ushering in the beginning of the end to the American hat-wearing culture. I think presidents just follow the current popular culture and, if anyone, it started with Eisenhower. He went from wearing his military garrison cap to a golf cap. Eisenhower also broke tradition by wearing a black Homburg instead of a top hat at his inauguration

Winston Churchill was also a Homburg wearer and Dwight Eisenhower wore one at his inauguration in 1953. It was the hat of the moment; smart, serious, more stylish than a bowler but less formal than a top hat. Exactly what every image conscious 1950's bank manager would have been wearing.

 

[GHT]

A Hat trick is when a hockey or soccer player scores three goals in one game, but the use of the term actually didn’t start on the football pitch.

The phrase came from cricket, and was used when a bowler took three wickets from three consecutive balls. The club would give the bowler a Bowler hat to celebrate this achievement.

 

[Frunobulax]

In baseball, a golden sombrero is a player's inglorious feat of striking out four times in a single game.

The Olympic rings or platinum sombrero applies to a player striking out five times in a game.