Thursday, April 29, 2010

Spectral Stereotypes "The Man With The Top Hat"


Yesterday my group did a presentataion to one of our clients. Since there wasn't a lot of media there is was more relaxed than usual. I like those better because we get a chance to really talk to our clients and their family. As with most informal presentations we all got to talking about ghost stories and history about the town. It seems that one in three people have seen have seen this guy:






or this guy












Who exactly is this fancy spectral man? Why is he always a "shadow person"? Why does he show up everywhere? bysides costume parties or halloween costumes, the top hat is not a modern accesssory. So it can safely be debated that these fancy men must have lived more than a century ago.



Well, most of them anyway.

Anyway, a quick google search says that top hats were worn on a daily basis from 1812 until the 1920s when fadoras and bolder hats became popular. Top hats had to be made from a hat maker and because of the industrial revolution they fell out of favor because the fadoras and bolder hats could be auto produced. That doesn't make much sense to me but what do I know about men's hats? Since these hats had to be hand produced they were expensive and used as a status symbol. So in theory there must be a bunch of wealthy GQ men with unfinished business. It is my hope to one day find these mysterious top hatted men and find out what the deal is.

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