How did gentlemen become interested in the top hat?    
http://www.silktophats.eu/historytophat.html    
Edward, Prince of Wales with Prince Henry and Prince Albert http://www.pinterest.com/pin/542402348848149249   
King Edward VII of England http://www.pinterest.com/pin/219269075580834260

When milliners in France first started producing them. Tricorner hats had acquired a few bad associations by then in that neck of the woods so there was a desire to do the early 19th century equivalent of turning baseball caps back to front. Top hats originally used the same dimensions, material and construction as the sugarloaf hat which already had enjoyed a long-held popularity among women throughout Europe (and its colonies). Flattening the top was enough of a difference to market it to males with more money than sense.

Fashion, eh? Alors là, je donne ma langue au chats.

Napoleon I of France had approximately 120 bicorne hats during his reign from 1804 to 1815.    
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2830141/Yours-heady-sum-Iconic-two-cornered-hat-worn-Napoleon-exile-year-defeat-Waterloo-goes-sale-500-000html

nordmann wrote:

When milliners in France first started producing them. Tricorner hats had acquired a few bad associations by then in that neck of the woods so there was a desire to do the early 19th century equivalent of turning baseball caps back to front. Top hats originally used the same dimensions, material and construction as the sugarloaf hat which already had enjoyed a long-held popularity among women throughout Europe (and its colonies). Flattening the top was enough of a difference to market it to males with more money than sense.

There is a view that advances in the development of machine tools in the 1790s also facilitated the transition. It’s suggested that the shift from wigs, bicornes and tricornes, to no wigs and top hats, was a manifestation of the industrial revolution reflected in fashion. Contrary to the 20th and 21st century caricature of the top hat as belonging to the upper classes, for much of the 19th century it was something of an egalitarian mode of headgear, differentiated perhaps, only by the quality of the material used in its manufacture – i.e. silk velvet or beaver felt for the wealthy and cotton/linen velvet or wool felt for the rest.

It was a similar story 50 years later with the development of the bowler hat. Originally designed as a practical alternative to the top hat, and specifically intended for the working class, it was soon taken up by the middle and even the upper classes – again with material differences to ensure distinction. Intriguingly, bowler hats are also associated with the women of the Aymara and Quichua nations of the Andes. It’s believed that such headgear was popularised there by British and Irish engineers working on various projects in South America for companies such as the Antofagasta Nitrate & Railway Company beginning in the 1870s.

Similarly, top hats became popular with women on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in New Zealand. The top hat is sometimes seen as the must-have accessory to the moko kauae (chin tattoo) among Maori women. Some claim that top hats were being worn by Maori (women and men) even before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. This would put a question mark over the popular imagery of the varying dress codes of that era. What is incontrovertible, however, is that Maori women were certainly sporting top hats by the 1860s.




(A Maori couple posing for a photograph c. 1865)

There's a story that bowler hats were originally popularised in South America as head-gear for women to try and off-load a consignment of bowlers that were all small-sized. Frankly I find that rather implausible (are womens' heads really so much smaller than mens' and why make so many under-sized hats in the first place?) although a kernel of truth in the tale might still account for why the bowlers sported by Bolivian women are indeed noticeably small and worn perched high up on top of the head:



In North America the bowler hat, there often called the derby, was also popular and in the "Wild West" it was the bowler rather than the stetson or sombrero that was often the hat of choice amongst cowboys and gunslingers, supposedly because it would not blow off easily in strong wind while riding a horse. Bowlers/derbys were regularly worn by Butch Cassidy and other members of his "Wild Bunch" gang while the hat, together with his cravat and overall smart appearance, were the trade-marks (and so specifically mentioned on "wanted" posters) of the train robber Marion Hedgepeth, commonly referred to as "the Derby Kid".   

   
The "Wild bunch" in 1900 (L-R): Harry Alonzo Longabaugh "the Sundance Kid"; William "News" Carver; Ben Kilpatrick "the Tall Texan"; Harvey Logan, "Kid Curry"; and Robert Leroy Parker alias "Butch Casssidy".


Marion Hedgepeth, "the Derby Kid".

With their bowler hats, suits and ties, waistcoats and fob watches, they rather look like a group of moderately-successful small-town businessmen, which in a sense I suppose they were, until they were caught. It's also interesting that in around 1900 all these grown men were happy to be referred to as bunch of "kids".

My grandmother, writing to her husband to be from Scotland to NZ/Aotearoa in the early 20th century, talked about 'kids' she was teaching.
And with regard to hats, I remember as a child all the men in the district wore hats, except my father who never wore one, even on the coldest days in southern NZ. And he was a farmer so outside much of the time. I never thought to ask him why or if I did I have forgotten now.

Just editing this because I didn't make it clear that I was addressing Caro initially about her father's taste in headgear (or lack thereof). Maybe if your father was self-employed and self-sufficient he didn't need to bow to the social norms of the day...or maybe he just didn't like hats.  I can remember my dad occasionally wearing a cap like an Andy Capp cap though he mostly didn't bother.  I don't think it's exactly a top hat - looks like a cross between a top hat and something else - but what the heck is the hat Milady is wearing at 0.51 in the trailer for the new version of Les Trois Mousequetaires in French.  And what the heck with a black-haired Milady (in my mind I can hear MM saying the colour of Milady's hair doesn't matter to the plot).  I'm not particularly a fan of the actress playing her so I don't know if that's affecting me. 

LadyinRetirement wrote:

... but what the heck is the hat Milady is wearing at 0.51 in the trailer for the new version of Les Trois Mousequetaires in French. And what the heck with a black-haired Milady (in my mind I can hear MM saying the colour of Milady's hair doesn't matter to the plot). 

Actually LiR, I'm with you on that one: Dumas described Milady de Winter as being in her early twenties, tall, fair-haired with brilliant blue eyes. I have always understood that to mean he deliberately intended her to appear like a perfect "English Rose" - so all the better, along with her perfect command of the English language, to seduce, beguile, deceive and appear other than she truly was - just so long as she never revealed the dark fleur-de-lys brand on her shoulder that marked her as a common French criminal. Her portrayal in the trailer as being older and darker - not just in complexion but in attire too - I feel panders to those who need the scheming femme fatale of the story to be clearly identified right from the start: perhaps they should just have pinned a badge on her dress with "villaine" clearly written on it.

However I'm not sure what you find wrong with her hat. Low-crowned, wide-brimmed hats - often made of felt, or of straw covered with fabric, and then adorned with feathers, fur or flowers - were in fashion in the 1620s and remained so for the following two hundred years. For just three examples here are (L-R) Queen Henrietta Maria in riding costume wearing a broad-brimmed hat with ostrich plumes, painted by van Dyck in 1633; Helena Fourment (Peter Paul Reubens' wife) wearing a broad-brimmed black hat cocked up on one side and decorated with a hatband and plumes, painted by Reubens in 1638; and lastly, perhaps looking somewhat more like Dumas originally envisaged Milady de Winter, is the 'Portrait of Susanna Lunden (?)' - aka 'Le Chapeau de Paille' or The Straw Hat - and possibly an earlier painting of Reubans' wife - painted by him around 1625, which is just a year or so, if that, before Dumas' Les Trois Mousquetaires was originally set.

           

Caro, we briefly discussed when and why did men stop wearing hats, here, but we never got onto why some never wore them. However in rural NZ there wouldn't have been the smoke, smog and smuts - from domestic coal fires, steam trains, coal-powered factories and power stations - that were all pervasive in most towns and cities in post-war Britain until the 1970s, so that might have had an influence on your father's hat-wearing habits. As ever though, what type of hat - or none at all - that you choose to wear, does undeniably make a visible statement about how you see yourself.

Regarding the term "kids" for children, far from it being yet another regrettable Americanism, it's certainly been in common use in England since the mid 19th century. Dickens in 'Oliver Twist' (1839) has: "So you've got the kid," said Sikes, when they had all reached the room, closing the door as he spoke. "Yes, here he is," replied Nancy. "Did he come quiet?" "Like a lamb," rejoined Nancy." Dickens doubtless deliberately juxtaposed "kid", a baby goat, with "like a lamb", a baby sheep. I think in Victorian usage a "kid" for a child typically denoted a somewhat mischevious, deliquent even mildly-criminal boy - like the Artful Dodger - while "lamb" was a much more affectionate and sympathetic term. Likely that is how kid came to be adopted as the nickname for various adult members of American criminal gangs.

Yesterday I listened to an old 'Murder After Midnight' by the late Martin Fido - they were originally broadcast in the 1990s and early 2000s on an LBC (London Broadcasting Company) programme.  He mentioned something about the term 'kid' as a slang word for a child coming from a word for a thief.  I'll have to try and listen to it again to check up.

Yes, there are a few straw hats in those pictures MM has shown.  I thought the one in the film was felt originally.

The French actress (Eva Green) playing Milady is actually a natural blonde but dyes her hair dark (I've more often come across dark-haired actresses lightening their hair).  In her 20s she was cast as a Bond girl where the character was blonde in the book but seemingly she's been dying her hair since she was in her teens.  She's not an unattractive lady but she was pressurised to assume an English actress for the Bond part and has played English parts at times since then.  I was able to tell she was French straightaway when I saw a TV show she was on but there are other people think she makes a noble effort.  I haven't seen that much of the actress's work so her acting could be okay apart from the (to me) dodgy English accent and of course Milady is French.  When I say dodgy accent I don't mean Dick Van Dyke dodgy and not everyone agrees with me as to the level of dodginess of the lady in question's version of an English accent.  If anyone watches 'Death in Paradise' the actress who played Florence is EG's cousin.

Editing to correct a wrong spelling.

Thanks for sharing this information about top hats. It's true that top hats became a symbol of wealth and status during the 19th century, and were often worn by upper-class men at formal occasions. They were also used by performers and actors to create a sense of grandeur and theatricality. Today, top hats are still associated with formal events, such as weddings and formal races, and are often seen as a symbol of refinement and elegance.

Think this pair used a top hat on the publicity for the shows "At the drop of a hat/another hat/the hat trick". The shows weren't really different iirc, but they used the later iterations when revisiting venues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW_zi8n4HDQ

Flanders and Swan were just playing on the well-worn and well-established, vaudeville/music-hall, 'rabbit out of the hat' meme. By the 1950s this was a very old joke/theme that had been going for very many decades, if not for very much longer.

The first person credited with 'magically pulling a rabbit out of a hat' is Louis Compte, who supposedly performed the trick before the newly-restored French king Louis XVIII during a soirée in 1814. The top hat was then newly in-fashion, probably fortuitously for Louis Compte as I expect it was much easier to perform his trick with a hat that could be sat on its flat top rather than say the types of cocked hat that had been the fashion immediately before the Revolution. Wasn't the top hat developed from the old, rather-pedestrian, Capotain-type hat, itself made newly fashionable during the Revolutioin, as a move toward displaying more austere, less-showy, more egalitarian headgear? Accordingly I also imagine the new top-hat style was embraced by the middle class as displayed an obvious shift from the earlier bicorne and tricorne hats, which were now unfashionably associated with the old nobility and who had mostly lost their heads along with their old-fashioned hats.


Carles Vernet's 1796 painting showing two French "Incredibles" (Dandies) during the Revolution, one with a newly-fashionable sort-of, proto, top-hat, the other with an older-style bicorne, which, whilst still in fashion at the time, was destined to become very much 'old hat' within just a decade or so.

Wearing a top hat is now often seen as a marker of high society, whether as part of the 'uniform' at Royal Ascot, Eton school or the local hunt, as well as for the flunkies attending on these people, such as the drivers of horse-drawn carriages, postillions, ushers and royal footmen.




Eton schoolboys in the 1960s.

In the 19th century however top hats were just regular middle-class head gear; part of the uniform for policemen and postmen, and the standard daily wear for any businessman or politician hoping to display his respectability.

     
Isambard Kingdom Brunel along with other engineers and other prominent industrialists at the launch of the SS Great Eastern in 1857 ... and President Abraham Lincoln during a visit to the Union Army in 1862.


Off duty policemen in Manchester, 1840.

Even low-lifes such as Dickens' characters Bill Sykes and the Artful Dodger proudly wore top hats,

   

... as did the middle-classed French revolutionaries at around the same time,


'La Liberté guidant le peuple' by Eugène Delacroix, in commemmoration of the July Revolution of 1830.

And of course top hats are still part of the traditional uniform of chimney sweeps (at least in Germany).