People who like Holmes know conan Doyle's character, like to wear a deer hunting hat, a cloak, and a curved pipe, full of British gentleman colors. But in fact, in Conan Doyle's original book, Holmes never wore a deer hunting hat.
Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock
What is a deer hunting hat? As the name suggests, it is the hat worn by Europeans when hunting in the wild. In appearance, it is sewn together using several pieces of cloth, with a brim on the front and back, and also an ear guard. For the nobles who went out hunting, such hats could protect the neck and ears well, cold and sun protection, and was the most popular style in the 19th century.
However, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, wearing only a "travel hat with ear protection" or "a cloth hat that is obedient", does not indicate that it is a deer hunting hat. However, the illustrators at that time, when assigning pictures to the story, found that the deer hunting hat was highly recognizable and more easily accepted. Therefore, everyone agrees with Holmes's deer hunting hat image.
<h1>However, Holmes first appeared in the illustrations, not wearing a deer hunting hat. </h1>
David Henry Friedstone's Sherlock Holmes
In 1887, the painter David Henry Friston was invited to paint a painting on The Study of Blood Letters, which was the first time Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes appeared in front of people. In David's pen, Holmes wears a cloak and a magnifying glass, wearing not a deer hunting hat but a top hat – the most popular hat for gentlemen in the Victorian era.
However, this look seems to be a bit "mediocre", and readers do not buy it. In people's imagination, Holmes is not an ordinary British gentleman, he is not old-fashioned, and he does not have so many rules, and should give this great detective a little personality. As a result, the illustrated image of Holmes's deer hunting hat has won the praise of most readers.
Sherlock Holmes in the film era was even more popular, and many excellent actors played this role. However, the most accepted classic Sherlock Holmes actor by a wide audience is the British actor Jeremy Brett.
Jeremy Brett
Before that, the actors were "playing" Sherlock Holmes, and when he came here, there was no "acting", and Jeremy Brett was Holmes. This is probably one of the highest accolades for an actor, and for many Sherlock Holmes fans, Jeremy Brett is still the most classic Sherlock Holmes. The most important reason for this is that Jeremy Brett boldly "subverted" the original book, creating a more suitable for screen performance of Sherlock Holmes. Jeremy not only made Holmes less frequently smoke, but also made the 19th-century detective wear the most popular top hat of his time.
This is the real historical dress, in the 19th century London streets, no one wore a deer hunting hat to shop, because it was so stupid.
<h1>Jeremy Brett must have studied Victorian male attire carefully to make this change. Let's also go back to that particular era and see what the British gentlemen were like. </h1>
The streets of 19th century England
In numerous pictorials depicting 19th-century British street scenes, gentlemen tended to wear dresses and top hats, with at least half of the men bearded. That is, Victorian men, very popular with top hats and beards.
Let's start with the beard, because the beard or beard is all over the street. Beards became a fashion throughout Europe at that time, such as Greek men, regardless of class, liked to wear beards; politicians and elites liked to have thick beards, such as Tsar Alexander III of Russia; Germans preferred two thick beards, such as the philosopher Nietzsche, Kaiser Wilhelm I, Marshal Of the Navy Alfred von Tirpitz; almost everyone of the French Impressionist artists had a beard...
Everyone knew that beards were inconvenient, that it was easy to stick to soup and food when eating, and that delicate figure-eight whiskers needed to be trimmed frequently – but European men at the time didn't care about that because it was a fad.
Compared with the beard, the top hat is an indispensable decoration for British men.
After the 1820s, the top hat quickly became popular. First worn by the middle class, then it became popular to the aristocracy, and in less than 30 years, the streets of The Whole Of England were filled with top hats. In fact, over time, the height of this black top hat has also increased, so that at the end some people have a "big chimney" on their heads.
The streets of London in the 19th century
Although the beard has not been popular for too long, the vitality of the top hat is very tenacious. From the 1830s to the beginning of the 20th century, the whole of Europe was filled with people wearing such hats. Moreover, the cloak that accompanied it also became popular, and the middle class at that time paid special attention to their own image, even some poor people would buy a top hat to wear for decency.
How exaggerated is the obsession with top hats? In 1893, a Berlin newspaper reported that a "man without a hat" was wandering the streets and harassing passers-by, who was apparently mentally abnormal; Dickens, in the novel "Among Our Friends", created a character who lived by salvaging dead bodies in the Thames and paying for the pockets of the dead, and Dickens described him as a "savage" because of his "disheveled hair".
The top hat has become not only a symbol of status, but also a symbol of "civilization". This kind of hat is obviously more practical than the deer hunting hat, in fact the British like to take them to watch plays and listen to opera, which seems to block the view... However, this kind of hat was never born for practical purposes. Gentlemen who meet on the streets of London often raise their hats to salute each other, an expression of civility and courtesy.
Therefore, Holmes, who lives in a big city, can never walk around with a deer hunting hat all day, and people will think that he has a mental problem.
<h1>So, what is the popular reason for this exaggerated and impractical top hat? </h1>
Top hats are common on the streets of London
Even people of that era did not delve into the origin of a popular costume. But we have to admit that the outfit that most men in Europe (including all classes) like is not such a simple reason as "good looking".
Modern researchers believe that the popularity of bearded beards and top hats in Europe in the 19th century stemmed from a "silent protest" against feminism.
Contrary to what many people think, until the 19th century in Europe, women were still "underground". According to the famous Napoleonic Code, most European countries considered women not to be legal persons. Before getting married, they can only follow the arrangements of their parents. After marriage, the husband is required to exercise legal rights instead. That said, most European women in the 19th century were unable to independently sign contracts, file lawsuits, or even change their residential addresses.
Bicycles were also a favorite of many women in the 19th century
However, the bourgeoisie has "limited" improved the status of women. For example, women are more and more educated, and many universities are willing to admit female students; women have gained a certain degree of suffrage (in certain countries and regions); women can participate in jobs, especially in industries that previously did not allow women to participate; the Married Women's Property Act passed in England in 1870 ensured that women's income was owned by themselves; at the end of the 19th century, women began to be active in newspapers and magazine editing; women changed the feminine characteristics of clothing by bicycle...
High levels of education and extensive participation in social life have made women more and more aware of their own rights and interests, and feminist movements have increased - bourgeois men, although they agree with the promotion of women's status, are very worried about the relative decline of men's status.
<h1>In fact, European men have dominated for thousands of years. A gentleman should not oppose women's struggle for their own rights, so how should they continue to emphasize their "male superiority"? </h1>
The top hat popular on stage
Quite simply, by a black dress, beard, and top hat. The so-called decency of the 19th century was not only the embodiment of wealth and status among men, but also how to make themselves "like a man". Although the gentlemen of the time did not discriminate against women with malice, they still hoped from the bottom of their hearts to maintain a sufficient "advantage" in front of women.
As a result, the beard and beard appeared, which made men appear more "masculine", especially the thick beard can hide the small expression on the face, so that men can be moody and angry - 19th-century Europeans believed that showing affection was a female feature.
And the high top hat is also through serious color and height, emphasizing manhood. When paired with a black cloak, it looks even more "manly". Because at that time, women's clothing and accessories were often very gorgeous, women were more willing to show their advantages, more willing to use beautiful clothing and accessories to attract attention.
The top hat in Gangster New York
Of course, 19th-century British men would never admit that beards and top hats were meant to preserve men's pride. At that time, they had some other explanations, such as some people saying that the air was full of harmful mist, and the thick beard could filter out the poisonous gas. As for the top hat, nature is interpreted as a symbol of civilization ...
Of course, the biggest feature of "pop culture" is that even the obsessives in it are difficult to say the main reason for the popularity. Everyone else is like this, so I want to do the same.
Sherlock Holmes's top hat, though originating from the enhancement of male status, soon diluted this original purpose and became a purely male ornament—representing a decent image of a European.
Chaplin's classic image
This image also spread to the United States, and it abounds in film and television works. For example, the exaggerated top hat in "New York Gangsters" is a manifestation of the efforts of early immigrants to maintain male dominance and cohesion. And chaplin's film homeless Charlotte, also wearing a dress and a black top hat, there is no doubt that Chaplin wants to tell us that this image is trying to maintain "civilized decency" and want to gain people's respect.
Victorian Britain had too many symbolic things. In 19th-century Europe, there were also too many contradictions and struggles: colonizers and colonized people, old aristocrats and new bourgeoisie, men and women, industrialization and environment, civilization and violence... All of this is reflected in works of art and people's lives, like the top hat on Holmes's head.