The Panama Hat

-this article is taken directly out of the Ecuador Lonely Planet book

For well over a century, Ecuador has endured the world mistakenly crediting another country with its most famous export...the panama hat.  To any Ecuadorian worth his or her salt, the panama hat is a sombrero de paja toquilla (toquilla-straw hat), and to the connoisseur it's a Montecristi, named after the most famous hat-making town of all.  It's certainly not a Panama hat.

The origin of this misnomer, surely one of the world's greatest, dates back to the 1800s when Spanish entrepeneurs, quick to recognize the unrivaled quality of sombrero de paja toquilla, began exporting them via Panama.  During the 19th century, workers on the Panama Canal used these light and extremely durable hats to protect themselves from the tropical sun, helping to solidify the association with Panama.

Paja toqilla hats are made from the fibrous fronds of the toquilla palm, which grows in the arid inland regions of the central Ecuadorian coast, particularly around Montecristi and Jipijapa.  A few Asian and several Latin American countries have tried to grow the palm to compete with the Ecuadorian hat trade, but none could duplicate the quality of the fronds grown in Ecuador.

The work that goes into these into these hats is astonishing.  First, the palms are harvested for their shoots, which are ready just before they turn into leaves.  Bundles of shoots are then transported by donkey and truck to coastal villages where the fibers are prepared.

The preparation process begins with beating the shoots on the ground and then splitting them by hand to remove the long, thin, flat, cream-coloured leaves.The leaves are tied into bundles and boiled in huge vats of water for about 20 minutes before being hung to dry for three days.  Some are soaked in sulfur for bleaching.  As the split leaves dry, they shrink and roll up into round strands that are used for weaving.

Some of the finished straw stays on the coast, but most is purchased by buyers from Cuenca (Ecuador), and surrounding areas, where the straw is woven into hats.  Indeed, you will see more panama hats in and around Cuenca than you'll see anywhere in Ecuador.

The weaving process itself is arduous, and the best weavers work only in the evening and early morning, before the heat causes their fingers to sweat.  Some work only by moonlight.  Weaves vary from loose crochet (characteristic of the hats you see sold everywhere) to  a tighter 'Brisa' weave, which is used for most quality panama hats.

Hats are then graded by the density of their weaves, which generally fall into four categories: standard, superior, fino (fine), and superfino (superfine).  Most hats you see are standard or superior.  If you hold a real superfino up to the light , you shouldn't see a single hole.  The best of them should hold water, and some are so finely woven and so pliable that they can supposedly be rolled up and pulled through a man's ring!

After the hats are woven, they still need to be trimmed, bleached, blocked and banded.  Then they are ready to sell.  Although standard-grade hats start at around $15 in Ecuador, a superfino can cost anywhere between $100-$500.  While it may seem expensive, the same hat will easily fetch three times that amount on shelves in North America, and Europe.  And, considering the worked that goes into a superfino, it rightly should.