On reading your "You Wear It Well - Thanks To These" (Evening Press, December 30), my favourite fashion guru was the London milliner John Etherington who was thought to have invented the top hat in 1797.

Admittedly, living as I do in a "flat cap" area of Yorkshire, I have never seen many top hats in my lifetime at Tadcaster apart from those (very occasionally) worn at weddings and at funerals.

For me John Etherington's top hat had an intriguing history when in 1797 he wore his new design in public in London.

A contemporary newspaper account told of passers-by panicking at the sight of the topper. Several women fainted, children screamed, dogs yelped and an errand-boy's arm was broken when he was trampled on by the mob surrounding Etherington (and his hat!).

As a result of this chaos and so-called riot, Etherington was hauled before the court; I do not know the outcome, but fortunately for posterity (and style!) his top hat survived - though so seldom seen at Tadcaster!

Ida Mary Goodrick,

Woodlands Avenue,

Tadcaster.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.