Bentleys at Gieves & Hawkes have an outstanding collection of vintage top hats and antique hat boxes ready for the forthcoming summer season.  Perfect to smarten up events from the Epsom Derby on the first weekend of June and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, to Ascot in mid June or a traditional British summer wedding.

A London haberdasher, James Hetherington,caused uproar and was arrested in 1797 for wearing the first known top hat, in the Strand, London. He was charged with causing a breach of the peace by “appearing on a public highway wearing a tall structure of shining lustre and calculated to disturb timid people”!

These beautiful top hats are no longer manufactured as their long grain silk is not available, the last mill closing decades ago.

They are guaranteed to stand out in a crowd, timid or otherwise.