Beginning in the early to mid-1600's hat weaving evolved as a cottage industry all along the Ecuadorian coast. Hat weaving and wearing grew steadily in Ecuador through the 17th and 18th centuries. Even then, the best quality hats were being made in what is now the province of Manabí. Hats woven there gained a reputation for being better quality, finer, than woven elsewhere.
Ecuador had those beautiful straw hats it wanted to sell and did not have the tourists or people passing through to somewhere else to buy them. Just a few hundred miles to the north, a relatively short boat trip away is Panama. In the 1800's Panama was part of what now is Colombia. Then, Colombia was called New Granada. Unlike Ecuador, Panama was a very busy corner, with lots of people passing through and working there.
Before air travel, anyone on the East Coast of Canada or the United States who wanted to go to the West Coast (or vice versa) had three choices: (1) travel overland, (2) take a ship around the tip of South America, (3) take a ship to Panama, cut across the isthmus, and get another ship on the other coast. Option number three was the fastest, and probably the least hazardous, of the choices.
Then gold was discovered in California, and the number of people passing through Panama exploded exponentially. Since the straw hats are strong, lightweight, attractive, they were much in demand. They are perfect for deflecting the tropical sun of Panama, just the thing for those long days in sunny California while getting rich panning for gold, and they're even nice to have on a summer day in Philadelphia or Boston.
The Panama Canal workers often wore the hats, which showed up pretty well in the black-and-white news photos of the day. One photo, made in November 16, 1904, is often credited as the original as the origin of both the name and fashion.
The photograph showed President Theodore Roosevelt wearing a black-banded straw hat as he sat at the controls of a ninety-five-ton Bucyrus steam shovel during a three day inspection tour of the Panama Canal excavation. The picture was widely published in the U.S., and around the world, prompting much comment of the President's "Panama" hat.
People on the way to the gold fields bought the "Panama" hats. People returning from the gold fields also bought the straw "Panama" hats. When, people got home and someone comments "Nice hat. Where'd you get it?" The response was, of course, "Panama". Those hats were made in Ecuador and didn't have the stickers inside stating "Made in Ecuador". Ecuadorians themselves do not call their hats Panama hats. In Ecuador, the hats are called sombreros de paja toquilla, or "hat of toquilla straw".
Did you also know that the art of weaving was added to the UNESCO Intangible Culture Heritage Lists on December 6, 2012?
The traditional brimmed straw hat There are two main processes in the creation of a "Panama" hat, weaving and blocking. The hats are commercially graded with numeric degrees to indicate quality, but these vary by seller. The rarest and most expensive hats can have as many as 1600 to 2500 weaves per square inch.
Although the "Panama" hat continues to provide a livelihood for thousands of Ecuadorians, fewer than a dozen weavers who are capable of making the finest "Montecristi superfinos" remain.
The men's section of ready made hats...a great place to try on different styles and see what you like and then have them custom make yours....
It was time for Ed to buy the tradition straw hat now made in Cuenca. There is a place here that will custom make your hat. First you have to understand about the different qualities of weave available. They can be priced from $35 up to a couple of thousand dollars. Ed could tell the difference from the cheaper quality weave to the mid-range. OK, he selected the quality of weave he wanted and now it was time to design the height of the top and width of the brim. Our seller said he would make two hats and return in 3 hours.
When we returned, there were two very different hats for Ed to try and see if he liked either one. The top picture has a more open weave top and we liked that but the brim was too narrow for Ed. The bottom picture was a little finer weave and had a solid woven top but a wider brim & that was the hat Ed selected. Now, Ed needed to select the type band for that hat. He didn't want the traditional black cloth band so he went with black leather.
Putting the new leather band on Ed's hat....
Ed wearing his new custom hat...looks pretty snappy to me!
The problem is now that Ed has his new hat, it sits in the closet because he doesn't want to get it wet or dirty....
Peggy, great story! When we were in Montecristi where they also make large numbers of the "Panama" hats, they told us you can wash the hat in a tumbler washer on delicate cycle because the tight weave can handle the water and the hat still would keep its shape. Haven't tried it, so don't know for sure. But the hats seem to be pretty resistant to dirt.
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