Opera hat which means hat, and "claque", which means "tap" or "click". The "chapeau claque" is thus a hat that folds with a click, and unfolds likewise. In English the hat model is usually referred to as a "collapsible top-hat", "gibus" or more often "opera hat"- The construction may originally have been inspired by an historical hat model called "chapeau bras" ("arm hat"), made as bicorne or tricorne to be carried folded under the arm On May 5, 1812, a London hatter called Thomas Francis Dollman patented a design for "an elastic round hat" supported by ribs and springs. His patent was
The Italian Straw Hat (play) "won almost immediate acclaim not only from the public, but from critics and academics alike". It was revived more often than any other of Labiche’s plays, and when he published his "Complete Works" in 1878, he placed it first in the first volume. The Italian Straw Hat (play) The Italian Straw Hat ("Un chapeau de paille d'Italie") is a five-act comedy by Eugène Labiche and Marc-Michel. It premiered at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on 14 August 1851. It has been adapted for the cinema in French, English, German and Russian, and as a musical play in English and