The times., 1899-07-09
STYLE IN ENGLISH HATS.
Marked Changes In London in Re-
cent Years.
QFrOm the Hatters' Gazette.

(From the Hatters' Gazette.)
II the question were asked of every
wearer OF silk hat. If comfort were the
only question to be considered. would you
prefer to wear felt or a silk hat?" we
do not doubt that, without exception. the
answer would be that fashion DEGREES that
silk hats must be worn by all men who
wish to look we'll dressed. and the die
tates OF fashion must be obeyed. notwith-
standing the extra comfort gained by
wearing a hard or soft felt While fashion
rules thus, the hat trade benefits all round
\ man wearing a silk hat when on bust
ness. at social functions or on Sunday
naturally reverts to a felt hat on other oc-
casions. As hatters know. a hat suffers
almost as much wear by being exposed to
light and dust while hanging on a peg as
when on the wearers head. 1t follows
that all branches of the trade are helped.
and the more frequently the leaders of
fashion desire new shapes in either silks
or felts the greater will be the turnover of
manufacturers and retailers.
Who are the mysterious individuals, or.
rather. who is the mysterious individual
who decrees with what particular kind OF
covering long-sufering humanity shalt
hide the brains We are all more or less
supposed to possess? IL is said that the
Prince of Wales. who is a staneh believer
in the silk hat. has considerable hand in
the matter. But whether that be so or
not. the Prince is undoubtedly responsible
for the still almost impregnsbe position
this article occupies in our wardrobes.
According to a London morning paper.
the silk hat is losing ground. With
frock coat it is de rigenr the world over
with all who make the slightest pretence
even of knowing what to wear says the
writer Of the article But in no city.
perhaps. is the doom OF the silk hat more
patent than in London. Twenty, nay tea,
years ago, who but a vulgar clodhopper
would dare wear bowler in Bond Street
or the Park2 What city man. to say
nothing OF city clerk, would have dream
ed OF going 10 his office except in the regu-
lation headgear? What fellow from the
country-more especially if he wanted TO
be taken for a cockney-would have come
for few days holiday to London without
his silk hat The shape or style or cut
did not matter. To his Impractical eye
he saw no difference: the fact that he had
| a silk hat on was more than sufficient for
him. But all that is changed. The silk
hat is fast losing its hold in other parts of
London. as it did many years ago in Fleet
Street.-The one great thorcughfare where
headgear is of no account; where even a
poetical species of hat is affected by some,
yeritable sOmbrer0 of sunny Seville.
which for some unfathomabIe reason Lon
, doners speak of as a sombrero hat as
though sombrero itself meant something
else.
But in spite of all this. the silk hat
still goes long way 10 mark man. The
silk hat Of the swell-the man about town
lis not the silk hat of the city merchant:
we have cabinet minister's silk hat. a
clerical silk hat a journalistic silk hat. a
lawyers silk hat. a cabmans silk hat. a
city clerks silk hat. and many more.
| There they all are, proclaiming loudly to
some extent by their condition, but more
often by their shape, to what class OF per.
son they belong