Top Hat Symbolism

Symbolism of clothing

Bat people of Wasteland think quite highly of themselves. They know they are superior to others, much more elegant and sophisticated than other people of the world. While other people like to be loud and crude, just telling everyone whatever is on their mind, bat people are a lot more reserved and discreet. They don’t communicate only through words, but also through subtle signs and symbolism that are present in all areas of their life. One of the ways to relay messages to the people around you is through clothing.

One of the best pieces of clothing to do that with are top hats. They are a very important part of every man’s, and many women’s wardrobes. It’s only proper and polite to wear a top hat in public places, and only scoundrels would be caught in polite company without one. Actually, you will never be allowed in polite company without a top hat. This is why top hats are very convenient way to send out a message about who you are; and are for some reason particularly used to send a message about one’s sexual orientation. And probably size of one’s di- *ahem* I mean a body part that would never be mentioned in polite company. See there’s a lot of things you can’t just bring up in a polite and reserved society such as the one of bat people, that’s why these things are in place to begin with.

But enough ramble, let’s look at what one’s top hat may actually tell you about a person.

What is a top hat?

I can’t believe I have to explain that one, surely everyone knows what a top hat is. It’s a tall cylindrical head wear, known to have a colored ribbon around its base. The height of the top hat may imply one social status, their wealth, or maybe size of something else, the colors of the ribbon are generally used to convey one’s sexual orientation. This is sort of an important point for reasons such as the fact that bat people take a lot of inspiration for their lifestyle from a time period where any sexual orientation other than being straight would land you in a mental asylum, or in a straightjacket at the very least. The same era also heavily used symbolism as a way to convey messages with the help of accessories, jewelry and flowers. It’s unsure how or if top hats specifically were used in that, but they sure are an important thing today.

The meanings of top hat colors

Now, top hats themselves can be any color most appropriate to fit into the color theme of the rest of the outfit, but the color of the ribbon around the top hat’s base, usually has an important message to tell, and here are some of those colors:

white/silver/grey- White, or sometimes silver color says that the person wearing the top hat is either single, or uninterested in relationships altogether. Don’t bother this person with your advances. The guy who drives his horse drawn carriage back and forth between Graveyard and other settlements wears such a top hat - he doesn’t have time for silly romance.
gold/yellow - A person with yellow or gold ribbon on their top hat is a married person. Who they are married to isn’t really any of your business, maybe you’ll be able to figure out the gender of the person they’re married to from some other accessory they’re wearing. Or maybe you won’t because it’s none of your business. Glitter God can be seen with such a top hat in 5-IX. It’s convenient because gold happens to already be one of his theme colors, but it also tells you that he is married.
black - Here and there you may see someone wearing a top hat that’s completely black. This depressing color has an equally depressing meaning - the spouse or a partner of this person died, or is currently dead, and they are still grieving their loss.
blue - A blue ribbon on a top hat means that the person is interested only in the people of the opposite gender. Does this include the genderless women? It 100% might, but you won’t know until you ask! Also keep in mind that this person might still be also married or not particularly interested in a relationship at this time.
red - While blue color a lot of the time focuses on only one gender, red color isn’t that picky. If you see a person with a red ribbon on their top hat, they are interested in any gender. But just because they /can/ be interested in any gender that doesn’t mean they’re interested in /you/, so don’t get your hopes up either :T This is a popular color in general, as many people of our world aren’t too concerned about anyone’s gender. You will see Tim wear such a top hat in that one drawing that one time.
??? - There would, of course, also have to be a color that means that the person is only interested in the opposite gender. We don’t know at the time what this color is, but we’re doing our best to figure it out. You just can’t rush these things.

What about women?

All of these colors and the top hat symbolism mostly relates to men, but that’s not to say that women can’t wear top hats as well. A popular accessory for women are tiny top hats decorated with flowers.

Colors or types of these flowers probably convey similar things as they do with men’s top hats, but let’s not rush into any conclusions here. There is an instance of Tina and Nina wearing top hats with yellow flowers, and they both are married, and there is another instance of Nina with red ribbon on her top hat, which we already know what it means as well, so the theory adds up.

How reliable is this?

Now, we found and described many instances of different characters wearing different top hats with specific meanings and reasons, but be careful! These rules are only to be really trusted when you visit any of the bat settlements in Wasteland. Bat people here are the ones who have created these rules and care to live by them, but outside of these places, many people probably don’t even know that these rules exist, and don’t even wear top hats very frequently. If you see someone in a top hat outside of Wasteland, keep in mind that the chosen colors are just to fit their chosen color theme, and there's no use jumping to conclusions.