Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also stove-pipe hat) a tall hat, a top hat.

1852		Cleveland Plain-Dealer 20 Apr. n.p.: I have been laughing all morning at his queer bob-tailed coat, his stove-pipe hat, and awkward looking boots [DA].
1869		F. Whymper Travel and Adventure in Alaska 310: If one is got up elaborately in a ‘biled shirt’ (i.e., white shirt), a ‘stove-pipe’ (or as we say, ‘chimney-pot’) hat, and a suit of new broadcloth, one is apt to be asked, ‘You’ve rather spread yourself, haven’t you?’.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 242: Around his neck was wound a white choker, while, resting on his cranium, was a black stove-pipe hat.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 12/3: This is hardly fair, considering that a lot of Presbyterian parsons degrade the English national costume by wearing stove-pipe hats.
1886		Sporting Times 24 Apr. 1/1: There is much heart-burning among the other trainers who would like to sport a stove-pipe topper.
1894		G.A. Sala Things I Have Seen II 259: In middle-class seminaries the ‘stove-pipe’ was reserved for Sundays.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 81: Stove Pipe, a tall hat.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 159: Stiff hats are also a la mode, and I have even seen a ‘stove-pipe’ on the road.
1900		Sporting Times 31 Mar. 1/5: He himself retains the right to wear the old stove-pipe hat, black coat, and to carry an umbrella.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 251: A top hat so narrow of brim and so high of crown that no better description than the colloquial ‘stove pipe’ could be desired.
1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 106: The Range knew that the city-dwellers wore also ‘hard’ or ‘hard-boiled’ hats, subdivided into the two classes of, first, ‘derby’ or ‘pot’ and, second, ‘plug’ or ‘stovepipe’.
1938		R.L. Bellem ‘Grappling Trilby’ in Popular Sports June 🌐 He wears a stovepipe hat which has seen better days.
1947		Life 10 Feb. 64/2: The black felt hat which he had worn [...] was discarded for a ‘stovepipe’—the professional attire of lawyers [DA].
1950		New Yorker 8 Apr. 91/2: Quite an impressive scene is to watch Hildegarde in a Mr. John’s stove-pipe satin hat [DA].

2. (also stove-pipe trousers, stovies) in pl., tight, narrow trousers.

1863		B. Brierley Chronicles of Waverlow 147: their calves were displayed through a pair of broad ribboned ‘smalls,’ or hidden betwixt the seams of the more modern ‘stove pipes’ (trousers).
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 105: His ‘stovies’ or his ‘rammies’ are [...] his narrow-bottomed trousers.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 109: I know your type, a lady-killer in your pointed shoes and stove-pipe trousers and sideboards.
1979		New Musical Express 17 Nov. n.p.: He had a great pair of trousers – they were stove-pipe trousers.
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 56: I bought from van Dam a pair of charcoal-grey stove-pipes.
1995		I. Mahomed Cheaper Than Roses in Perkins (1998) 58: It’s like putting Winnie Mandela in a boob tube and stove pipes.