Opera hat

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Template:Short description

File:Chapeauclaque.png
A collapsible opera hat, open (above) and folded (below).

An opera hat, also called a Script error: No such module "Lang". or gibus, is a top hat variant that is collapsible through a spring system, originally intended for less spacious venues, such as the theatre and opera house.

Typically made of black satin, it folds vertically through a push or a snap on the top of the hat for convenient storage in a wardrobe or under the seat. It opens with a push from underneath.

Name

Its French name Script error: No such module "Lang". is a composition of Script error: No such module "Lang"., which means hat, and Script error: No such module "Lang"., which means Template:Gloss or Template:Gloss. The Script error: No such module "Lang". is thus a hat that folds with a click, and unfolds likewise.

In English, the hat model is usually referred to as a collapsible top-hat, gibus or more often opera hat.[1]

History

File:Pierrot du 21 novembre 1926 Chapeau-Claque.jpg
French comic book from 1926 that exhibits the advantages with the spring device mechanism of the collapsible top hat.

The construction may originally have been inspired by a historical hat model called Script error: No such module "Lang". (Template:Gloss), made as bicorne or tricorne to be carried folded under the arm.[2]

On 5 May 1812, London hatter Thomas Francis Dollman patented a design for "an elastic round hat" supported by ribs and springs. His patent was described as:

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Some sources have taken this to describe an early folding top hat,[3][4] although it is not explicitly stated whether Dollman's design was specifically for male or female headgear. Dollman's patent expired in 1825.[5] Operating from Poissy, Paris, France, around 1840, Antoine Gibus's design for a spring-loaded collapsible top-hat proved so popular that hats made to it became known as gibus.[6][7]

The characteristic snapping sound heard upon opening a gibus suggested a third name, the Script error: No such module "Lang"., Script error: No such module "Lang". being the French word for Template:Gloss.[8]

See also

References

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External links

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Template:Hats Template:Headgear Template:Clothing Template:Authority control

  1. www.silktophats.eu: History of the top hat
  2. Quinion, Michael. Why is Q always followed by U? Penguin Books. 2009 Template:ISBN
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