I wish we'd seen more of Stephen on the telly. I was re-watching an episode of the Peggy Mount/Pat Coombs sitcom 'You're Only Young Twice' recently. Stephen played 'Mr Chatterbox', of the local newspaper, and his delivery of the line about Noele Gordon opening the new Tesco extension, 'Bacon & Fats', still tickles me pink!
Aww yes - that is how you do tap with everyone up on the balls of their feet and clean lines. None of this awful builders boots and groucho marx walk that has crept in recently. Up up up and fill that stage.
It is so refreshing to see new top hats being made, I hope one day I will set a silk plush mill and make many top hats in various different traditional methods and many types, sizes and colors.
Since I was a child, I loved top hats. For children's performances at school, it was made of paper!... now I've bought three vintage hats.One of them fell off the edge and fabric from time to time, but this is easy to fix. To do this, I finally had the opportunity to see the mechanism with springs! ... inside the fields-shellac and six layers of dense uniform gauze... They are made of black satin. But this quality of fabric is now definitely not found in any store!... the folding hats were covered with satin, and the ordinary top hats were covered with silk plush. It had to be combed and hidden from moths. But they are very beautiful!
They are not sale in the store in the past,hatmakers will go into the fabric looming to by the silk by roll,obviously everyone wears a topper in the past
Modern silk plush is not always suitable. Best of all, if there are no synthetics. And this is expensive! .. And in a linen cloth or thick gauze, add melted shellac, and the hat must be adapted for making on a wooden bar. Craftsmen often use old cast iron irons, and the process requires high heat and strong male hands to make the shellac very smooth. The hats he makes are real!...
There are no modern silk plush,the last looms was burned in the 60s,the linen(or english hatters will use calico) has to be proofed in ammonia until they were like a thin plywood,its called gossamer,when not in heat they are incredibly stiff,while warm they were malluable,thats wht hatters fixing dents in top hats were using a special warmer,someone used to say they use oven,if you steam it,it just turn into a disaster,the shellac were mainly ironed into the gossamer/ammonia proofed linens and calico,continetals europe sometimes layer them with cheesecloth,it makes the brim more softer,while the british one use thick gossamer,making it more harder
I know that for top hats, for riding, they used linen mesh. (Linen gauze) At any rate, they were a little heavier than the calico cylinders, but they protected the head well from blows, like a helmet. In order to pull the fabric soaked in shellac on a wooden block, you need to make a stocking - "separator", first it is pulled on the workpiece, and then the fabric with shellac. Otherwise, the shellac will stick to the wooden block, and the workpiece will be difficult to remove from it. In addition, it helps to avoid prints, cracks and unevenness from parts of the wooden block on the outer fabric. a wooden block of five parts (each made separately) is soaked in linseed oil. (or other wood oil) This allows the block to be preserved and not destroyed for as long as possible. The older the wooden block, the less it sticks to the fabric. And it tolerates moisture and temperature better during operation. After several procedures (production of hats-cylinders) it is soaked again in linseed oil each time. This increases its service life, so you don't have to re-manufacture its parts. Some old videos clearly show that the craftsmen have old battered and worn wooden blocks. And they are good to work with for a very long time.
I wonder is he making the top hats with Silk plush, Beaver, or they Opera style. possible idea he is reconditioning old silk hats to new heads, last I read that the last existing loom to make plush was destroyed back in the 60s and the art was lost forever.
@@carltrotter7622 someone sure know,but nobody interested i guess,even the hatters everywhere in the world,there was someone say that they were weaving silk plush in the netherlands,they both are jan meeuwis and tom meeuwis(maybe the same people)because their website is was very similiar(silktophat.eu and silktophats.eu)but unfourtanely they both have passed away,tom meeuwis was a seller of mens clothing too,called blacktie herrenmode
It will be based off that. Although without all the feathers falling off like they did with Gingers! You can see the feathers on the floor if you look closely in Cheek to Cheek.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers will always be the only people who can do it properly. Nonetheless, good tribute, glad that they kept Beddini, Hardwick and Bates in the play.
I looked at some of his hats online and I think we're seeing a mix of activities going on. He's made hats from rabbit or beaver fur which when freshly ironed can look like plush from a distance and especially when filmed with a low quality camera. Very high quality fur felt has a well-defined grain so it can look close to silk plush. The lady is certainly working on a floppy felt hat. The hat he's working on looks like it's a real silk hat, but it is likely he's refurbishing it. It's not uncommon for silk hats to get an intensive refurbishment, everything but the plush can get replaced, and the work he's doing is a step in the under brim wool replacement process.
@@CharlieHuang yep,its was the same mystery as the both meeuwis(tom and jan meeuwis)who had a website called silktophat.eu and silktophats.eu,and this information was thank to youre blog sir,youre guide to buy topper is maybe one of the most usefull guide i have ever read,would like to you for reopening the top hats tallow polishing method,thankyou
Why can't I see the show? I'll do almost anything to see this. As being a admirer of Fred ,I think this is just swell. How unfortunately, I'm not old enough to earn so much money and go to see them
Go on! I support you with all my heart, if only I had enough money or I grow up a bit. But that's OK, knowing that Top Hat is still on these days puts a smile on my face
