THE "NUT'S" DILEMMA.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume 1, Issue 8, 14 February 1914, Page 9

THE "NUT'S " DILEMMA.

WILL HE LIKE THE TOP HAT? The daily papers are unanimously informing us that the top-hat habit is becoming more general. Well, the top-hat (writes F. M. Howard in an English exchange) is the most versatile thing we *can wear. It reflects every phase of civilisation, from the dignity of the statesman to the humour of the comedian. To typify rigid morality on the stage, the actor wears a grim-crowned top-hat; to denote a debonnair prosperity, we lower the crown and give a rollicking curve to the brim. The top-hat is the badge of woe or the symbol of rejoicing. Its airgle may denote geniality, or ihoroseness, airy recklessness, or deep thought. It is as expressive with a man of ingeunity as a fan is. with a flirt. But the top-hat is not beautiful; viewed dispassionately, it is not even comely. Beside one of those dashing velvet Homburg affairs it has a gaunt and unimaginative "air. If it were exclusively foreign we should frankly admit its-eccentricity. Small wonder, then, that the top-hat was one. of the first things to be abandoned when a few short years ago we began the search for colour and form in dress. The top-hat went ill with adventurous checks; the severity of its outline, unrelieved by tuft of fur or feathers, speedily ruled it out of favour at a time when only the ornate in demand. / - TREMENDOUS ISSUES.

And now. the wheel has turned full circle again, and the top-hat, as a banished heir in the fifth act, is to return to its own once more. There are some people who are blind to significance, people to' whom the arithmetical feat of adding two to two conveys no metaphoric suggestion. Such folks as these will hear quitej placidly of-the 'resurrection of.. the top-hat. To them. the news will mean merely the necessity to buy a top-hat. , But others, to whom the art of deduction is something more than a trick of the literary trade, will perceive mendous" issues beneatji the simple statement that the ,tpp-hat is to return to popular favour. They ,will infer that the mail of to-day tacitly admits, that he has ventured as far as he dare, or may care, to go in brave apparel. There is a chilling, lack of. individuality; about being a gay clad unit' in a gay ela(d crowd. : The unconventional, from sheer force of popularity, has become the conventional. Tweeds, once the exception, are now the rule; golf coats, caps, and loose collars no longer strike a note of originality in dress. NOVELTY IN CONVENTION. Novelty can now only be sought in convention. A commonplace style of dressing is a mark of originality in a world which; xiniformly strives to be bizarre. Aad'that is why those who would lead men's modes are returning ro the lop hat. To revert to more sedate fashions is the only way to achieve distinctiveness. ''The masculiue movement for the adoption of hrigliter clothes has failed- through success, and is in peril" of imminent .collapse. The position at present, in fact, is ' one of great interest to all men who give thought to what other m>-n wear. For th<s moment, our ?nale fashions are in the melting pot. How the "nut" will face this crisis, I cannot imagine. Will he, in his determined hunt for the new, the glad, the vivid, press inexorably on, heedless of the fact that no one is following himT Will he remain Joyal to colour and effusion, while his fellows follow fashion into the realms of the demure and frumpish ? Or will he form, as it were, a separate clan, a conspicuous race apart from other young men? In future years, will the "nut" be a dazzling apparition, following fashions: of his own,.blind to the laws which control other men's appearance? Just as ~you may nowy on rare occasions, meet old gentlemen who cling to the vestments of their youth,, so, in remote years, is it possible we: shall meet incongruously gorgeous old gentlemen who will explain that they were of the marooned "nuts" of 1913?

COMPROMISE f Or will the "nut" affect a policy of compromise, seeking to adapt dowdy fashions to his own "flamboyant temperament? Will he wear the respect-

able top hat, but first adorn it with coloured bands or a feather in the crown? Or will' he introduce pagenta top hats or sky blue? Will he accept the frock coat in principle, but insist that it shall "be of fluffy tweed,, or violet cashmere? In short; will be combine "Part Fouveau" with the taste of yesteryear? I think that the "nut" is more likely to throw in his lot whole-heart-edly with the new movement, leading the retreat where once he led the advance. He will be mid-Victorian where his fellows are still but late-Victorian. When they have emulated his daring and reached the clothes of the 'sixties, he will be dressed in the manner of the 'thirties. He will foe first at the Georgian gaol, arid amid those magnificences he will begin to feel at home again.