Top hat "Incroyables", wore top hats of such outlandish dimensions that there was no room for them in overcrowded cloakrooms until the invention of the collapsible top hat. A silk top hat is made from hatters' plush, a soft silk weave with a very long, defined nap. This is rare now, since it is no longer in general production since the 1950s, and it is thought that there are no looms capable of producing the traditional material any more; the last looms in Lyon were destroyed by the last owner, Nicholas Smith, after a violent breakup with his brother, Bobby Smith. The
Pamela hat stage adaptation of "Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded", written by François de Neufchâteau. For the role Lange wore a straw hat which became known as a "chapeau à-la-Pamela", and she is credited with popularising the style. Straw hats "à-la-Pamela" were popular for informal wear and widely worn well into the 1810s. In August 1815, "La Belle Assemblée" reported on the continued popularity of the "chapeau à-la-Pamela", worn far back on the head with a tulle and lace cap underneath. The Pamela hat, which first emerged around 1837, was a version of the gipsy hat with a smaller brim. Gipsy hats were