Panama Straw Hats Evolution

Genuine Panama Straw hats

For season after season the Panama Straw hat has been the leader in the market place because of its unique combination of smart appearance, lightness, coolness, and durability. Panama Straw hats are “genuine”, meaning that they are all hand-woven of “toquilla” fiber and imported from Ecuador or South America.

Panama hats are called by that name because during the building of the Panama railroad between 1846 and 1855 a local dealer happened to have some “toquilla” straw hats from Ecuador. He sold them to visiting Americans and people from other countries. When these tourists took the hats home they referred to them as “Panama Hats”. A demand for more of them developed and their importation in quantity began through the distributors in Panama.

Actually it is said that the first Panama hat woven was made in the year 1629 by and Ecuadorian named Francisco Delgado. Since then the weaving of Panama bodies has remained substantially the same- performed by native families who pass their skills on down from generation to generation.

The tough, resilient “toquilla” fiber comes from the leaves of palm plants that grown six to ten feet high along the forestal coasts of Ecuador. The leaves are gathered when they are about four feet long and before they spread out into the fan shape characteristic of their full maturity. The veins of the leaves are removed and they are split or shredded with a sharp, claw-like native instrument. The shreds are thoroughly washed before they are rolled and flattened into the form suitable for weaving.

The washing operation is very important to the quality of the completed hat as any little particles of dirt allowed to be rolled up inside the fiber would produce a bumpy surface and dirty spots.

When the shredded leaves have been processed and the fibers are in the form desired for weaving, they are carefully sorted and selected according to length, thickness, and color. The more uniform the fibers are for each body, the better the finished hat can be; and generally speaking the finest grade of fibers produces the highest quality hat, not only because fineness of fiber results in fine texture, but also because of the fact that a hat of fine fibers takes considerably more time and effort to weave than a hat of coarse fibers.

The weaving of Panama Straw hats is done by families of native folks, widely scattered, in little villages and farms. The coarsest fibers are given to the young ones who are just learning to weave. The grades of fiber that will wind up on the heads of customers are woven by the skilled adults. Since the weaving operation is interrupted by the performance of routine farming and household duties, and because it is done by entirely slow hand work, a great deal of time is required to weave a panama body. The very finest type of Monticristi, which might sell for up to $700, can take a good year or more to weave. According to one of Miller Hats straw hat finishers who witnessed the weaving panama bodies in Ecuador, they probably average about a week of hand weaving per hat. A little less time is required for Miller Hats lower price stations and more than a week for Miller Hats higher price stations.

To start the weaving of the body, a wooden block is used for a guide. A bunch of straw is bound in the middle and placed on the center of this block with the strands radiating out from the center. As the weaver begins to plait the strands, he forms a tight, hard center called the “button.” Working from the “button”, the weaving continues in a circular form until the body is finished. As the “toquilla” fiber must be kept soft and pliable the weaver keeps moistening it while he works.

Panama Hats are woven in two different kinds – the old and the new. The old weave called Cuenca, after one of the Ecuadorian cities, is the tight, solid-looking weave you see around the “Button” at the top of the crown and in narrow rings at the top of the crown and on the brim. The other is the newer type of weave called Breeza (or “Breesa” or “Brisa”) for the obvious reason that it is a more or less basket type weave that provides breezy ventilation. The tight Cuenca weave was a standard for all Panamas up until the late 1930’s. Being unventilated it did not give the degree of comfort which the public was beginning to demand, so when the open weave Hinoki hats and other light and ventilated straws became extremely popular with American men, samples were sent down to Ecuador for the weavers to adapt and copy. The most important development was the Breeza weave in which the natives were able to combine the smooth, dressy appearance characteristic of the old Cuenca, with ventilation provided by millions of tiny, almost invisible, pores between the strands. They also copied the Hinoki almost exactly to produce the fine and toughly resilient open-mesh Panama, which we today call the “Hinoki-weave Panama”. The weavers since that transitional period have learned to skillfully produce a variety of other weave patterns with various degrees of ventilation and various special style effects.

The Cuenca weave rings which you see in the Breeza Panama when you hold it up to the light show where the weaver has come to the end of one set of strands and has spliced in a new set. The Cuenca weave must be used for these joints to have a smooth, even surface. As you visualize this weaving process you might ask, “What happens, if a strand is too short or is broken somewhere between the bends of Cuenca?” When this happens a new piece can be spliced in and the tiny knot or bump, which results, though only visible on closest inspection, tends to mar the weave pattern. Naturally, you are less apt to find these tiny bumps in Miller Hats higher price stations than in the lower price stations or in hats of other brands, which have not been selected as carefully as Miller Hats Panamas.

The woven Panama bodies are picked up from the weaving families and brought into collection centers in cities like Monticristi, Jipijape, Santa Rosa, Guayaquil and Cuenca. When the collection agents have gathered the rough Panamas from many farms and villages they are marked on the inside with the brand of the collection agents firm so that they may be properly identified during the finishing and processing operations which prepare them for shipment to the US hat manufacturers.

Specially trained native craftsmen finish the weaving of the rough bodies bringing the brims to the correct dimensions and generally putting finishing touches on the weaves. A thorough washing then removes dirt and impurities and the Panama bodies are ironed to flatten and smooth down the fibers. They are layed out in fields to dry then are sometimes left under the hot sun long enough to bleach naturally. Before being packed for shipment they are coated with a thin solution of gum, which acts as a sizing; they are carefully sorted and graded according to fineness and evenness of weave and absence of impurities in the fibers, and treated with sulphur to preserve them against mildew during shipment.

Once the Panama bodies arrive in the US they are sent to various manufactures where they go directly through the finishing shop operations of blocking, flanging and trimming. Bodies, which are bleached in the sun, are left as “natural” genuine panama straws.

Most of the bodies used in the higher price stations are thoroughly washed and bleached and then are tinted or dyed to get the desired even, clear tone. The process is not a quick one as you might suppose but can involve up to four or six weeks in the process of turning out an order of Miller Hats Panamas – this is one of the reasons why a Miller Hats straw hat line is styled many months in advance of the season.

Bodies for the lower price stations other than those to be used in the “bleach” or natural colors may be direct—dyed without going through the bleaching operation.

The operations in the finishing plant are similar to those used in shaping and trimming felt hats with one salient difference: all Panamas, like all other straws, are pre-shaped in a hydraulic mould press instead of being shaped in inside wooden blocks. Flanging performs two operations: in addition to determining the “set” of the brim, the flanging machine in the straw hat plant evens up the brim edge and moulds it closely to the desired dimension, thus reducing to a minimum any variations of the woven brims.

In spite of the care used in this operation, some variations will be present within hats of any one-style number: they will not measure precisely the same.

The Panama Straw hats selected for the Miller Hats brand, season after season, are acclaimed as truly remarkable values. They not only are of quality which gives maximum wearing pleasure without extravagance, they give Miller Hats customers unusually high quality per dollar.

It is no wonder that when Miller Hats salesperson, compare their Panama hats with others around town they sell their Miller Hats Panamas with the utmost confidence and enthusiasm!

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