Top hat top hat is a hard, black silk hat, with fur now often used. The acceptable colors of hats are much as they have traditionally been, with "white" hats (which are actually grey), a daytime racing color, worn at the less formal occasions demanding a top hat, such as Royal Ascot, or with a morning suit. In the U.S. top hats are worn widely in coaching, a driven horse discipline as well as for formal riding to hounds. The collapsible silk opera hat, or "crush hat", is still worn on occasions, and black in color if worn with evening wear as
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