Black Collapsible Folding Prime Hat – Magicians, Dancers, and Theater Performances, Excellent for Adults.

Elegant plush top hat is great for prop/costume use; collapsible mechanism needs a bit of work.
I ordered this Black Collapsible Folding Top Hat for Adult, Magician Hat, Dancer Hat, Theater Hat to add to my family’s costume collection.My family loves costumes and dressing up; we’re overflowing with gowns and doublets; capes and crowns, petticoats and corsets. The Victorian/Edwardian period is one of our favorites; my teenage son has been looking for a folding opera hat/magician’s hat to replace his old one, its inner mechanisms finally gave up the ghost.Today, these are probably best known as magician’s hats; the plush top hats that spring up instantly from a flattened pancake. They used to call them opera hats; you could fold them down at the opera, so you didn’t block the view of other opera goers.This top hat’s brim is longer than it is wide; it measures about 11” long x 10” wide, and the opening for the head measures about 7 1/2” wide. Fully opened, the hat is about 6 1/2” tall; folded flat, it’s about 1 1/2”.I was pleased to see the hat is made from a soft, velvety black plush. My son has had a few of these pop up top hats over the years; the plush ones are generally sturdier and more attractive. This plush hat has a plain black ribbon band; it’s sewn down in one spot, but loose elsewhere.Inside, the hat is lined with what looks like a black polyester satin; there’s a wide black elastic band around the head opening.This hat sadly has some issues with its pop up mechanism. Usually there are four collapsing hinged supports inside the hat; usually you don’t feel them unless you’re actively trying to find them. This hat has three metal supports; something seems to have gone wrong, because they’re sticking up underneath the black faux satin lining.The hat sort of pops up; it’s lopsided. You can collapse it with your hands, but you can’t do the pop up and shake fold routine my son loves. If all the inner mechanisms were working properly, this would have been a five star review from me. The hat is nice looking, the black plush is thick and attractive, and my son has been looking for a new pop up opera hat.Unfortunately, the mechanisms aren’t working properly here. I may slit the lining and see if there an easy fix; we love costumes. Honestly, even without the pop up element, it’s a nice top hat. It has a slightly lopsided effect when open, but it could make a nice Mad Hatter or even a White Rabbit costume.At the current price ($19.99) if the inner workings were all in place, this would have been a really nice bargain. I’ve seen lightweight plain polyester versions of opera hats sell for two, even three times this price. The soft black plush versions go for even more.The inner hat lining has a small Velcro tab that allows you to set up a drape or pocket to hide small props; this hat does not have the elasticized pocket that my son’s previous “magician” hats had for hiding things.I struggled a bit with how many stars to give this hat; usually if an item is usable with one or a few minor issues, I remove one star. As a plain costume top hat, this works pretty well, though it’s a bit lopsided, and heavier than necessary because of the metal mechanism hidden in the crown.However, this is a collapsible/folding top hat. And that part isn’t working properly. In the end, I did remove one star because of the damaged mechanism. The hat is still a nice prop/costume piece; if the inner workings were all right, this would have been an easy and enthusiastic five stars from me.If you’re looking for a collapsible opera hat/magician’s top hat, this may not be the one for you. But if you’re looking for a nice top hat at a bargain price; this one does the trick for under $20.

Not just a cheap hat…this one’s quite nice!
Maybe it needs a bit of use to loosen up, but it does take a bit to get it to pop out. My old one probably had looser springs. On the upside, it looks really nice, and once you trigger it, it pops out with a very satisfying sound. Good fit, too, and it seems to be adjustable. Overall, it’s an excellent Vaudeville hat!