Over the years several fashion designers have become household names, and like many folks you’ve probably got your favourite.
However, you would be hard pressed to name one hat designer, although in the 20th century there was one who briefly came to public consciousness - Henry Higglebottom, better known as Top Hat Henry.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel - engineer and top hat afficiondo.
Henry first fell in love with top hats at an early age while studying about the engineer Isanbard Kingdom Brunel, who sported the most impressive of top hats.
Top hats were traditionally a symbol of the upper class, however, as Henry was from more humble roots, he set his mind upon the democratisation of hat wearing.
Otto Von Trilby working on his famous ‘Octopus’ hat.
Before he could do that, he had to learn the milliners trade, and so it was that upon leaving school at age sixteen, he moved to Vienna to study hat making with the legendary Otto Von Trilby.
After apprenticing with Von Trilby for seven intensive years, Henry set up shop in his own right as a milliner.
Here are a few of the notable top hats that Henry produced.
Matching hats for actress Sandra Spatula and her dog Splash
Popular actress Sandra Spatula never went anywhere without her dog Splash. So it was only natural that when deciding to commission a top hat, that she specified matching hats.
Unfortunately both hats were lost while driving along the Pacific coast highway. Top hats are not the best thing to wear while driving a open-top sports car at high speed, and were soon dislodged and carried off in the slipstream, only to be eventually eaten by a hungry goat.
The perfect perch for sugar gliders
Australian naturalist, Enid Nettle had to produce a documentary about the sugar glider - a type of flying marsupial similar in appearance to a flying squirrel. Her extra-tall hat made the perfect perch for sugar gliders to launch themselves off during the show.
The Trick Hat
Not content with putting rabbits from a hat, the Mesmerising Zuki developed a new trick involving a giraffe, which required the commissioning of a special hat for a prop.
Perhaps the biggest innovation that Henry brought to the milliner’s art, was the use of Dachshunds to apply finishing touches to the inside of hats.