Panama is a headdress. In which country were Panama hats invented - light straw hats Prices for Panama hats

A lightweight, elegant headdress made of natural straw is known as a Panama hat. Where did this name come from and what does it mean? It is the name that brings some confusion to the origin of the headdress. Few people know in which country Panama hats were invented, associating the name with Panama. The popularity of this headdress really came from there. But the place of origin is not there at all.

Homeland of Panama

Humanity has been using straw hats for a long time. Every nation has its own straw hats. The Chinese, Vietnamese and other peoples of Southeast Asia to this day wear headdresses made of reed straw when performing agricultural work.

In the south of Russia and Ukraine, peasants, going to the fields, put straw hats with wide brims on their heads. Almost every country used straw hats in the past. But it was Panama that became widespread and popular. It is difficult to simply determine in which country Panama hats were invented.

But it has a certain property. A real Panama hat is a straw hat woven from the leaves of Carludica palmata, which grows in Ecuador. The material for weaving a Panama hat is durable, elastic and soft, unlike simple straw. To find out if a Panama hat is real, fold it several times and it will not break, but will return to its original form. It is soft and not hot in the heat of the day. Despite all this, it retains its shape well.

Who invented the Panama hat? It is believed that the Incas were the first to weave such Panama hats. When the first conquistadors arrived in America, they noticed that the indigenous inhabitants of the open continent wore headdresses woven from thin and durable straw.

Where did the name Panama come from?

To the question in which country was Panama invented, the answer is clear: in Ecuador, since Panama as a state appeared only in 1903, and before that it was a province of Ecuador. Quality hats brought to Europe and sold in America became popular. It was impossible to satisfy the increasing demand with handicraft production.

The Spaniard Manuel Alfaro opened a small factory for weaving hats in 1863, where they invented the Panama hat in its present form. The company was located in the small town of Montecristi. High quality hats were produced here. Soon production was expanded and a new factory was built in the town of Cuenca.

To increase turnover, an enterprising manufacturer decided to sell them in a neighboring province called Panama. The construction of the canal began there by the French, who brought workers from France. The need for Panama hats was high here, since it was necessary to dig a canal under the scorching rays of the equatorial sun. It was at that time that this hat began to be called as we are accustomed to. Now you know in which country Panama hats were invented.

Popularity of Panama

In 1904, the construction of the canal began to be supervised by the Americans, who purchased a large number of Panama hats for the builders. At the same time, US President T. Roosevelt, who visited the channel, was photographed by journalists wearing a Panama hat. This increased her success in the US.

Today, many countries in South America are engaged in the production of Panama hats, but Ecuadorian ones are rightfully considered the best. The standard of Panama quality is hats with up to 2000 weaves, which are very expensive.

Most often, a Panama hat is a light hat with elastic brims made of a special type of straw - toquilla. However, this word is also used to refer to other headdresses:

• Headdress made of dense fabric with narrow brim. In English, this headdress is called a Bucket Hat.
• A cloth headdress for military uniforms in some armies of the world.

Panama is the national headdress of Ecuador. “Panama hats” are made not only in Ecuador, but also in a number of other Latin American countries, but Ecuador remains the main manufacturer. The recognized center of panama weaving is Cuenca, the third largest Ecuadorian city.

The headdress received its name due to the fact that it gained popularity in Europe and the USA during the construction of the Panama Canal.

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Excerpt characterizing Panama (hat)

In the middle of the third eco-session, the chairs in the living room, where the count and Marya Dmitrievna were playing, began to move, and most of the honored guests and old people, stretching after a long sitting and putting wallets and purses in their pockets, walked out the doors of the hall. Marya Dmitrievna walked ahead with the count - both with cheerful faces. The Count, with playful politeness, like a ballet, offered his rounded hand to Marya Dmitrievna. He straightened up, and his face lit up with a particularly brave, sly smile, and as soon as the last figure of the ecosaise was danced, he clapped his hands to the musicians and shouted to the choir, addressing the first violin:
- Semyon! Do you know Danila Kupor?
This was the count's favorite dance, danced by him in his youth. (Danilo Kupor was actually one figure of the Angles.)
“Look at dad,” Natasha shouted to the whole hall (completely forgetting that she was dancing with a big one), bending her curly head to her knees and bursting into her ringing laughter throughout the hall.
Indeed, everyone in the hall looked with a smile of joy at the cheerful old man, who, next to his dignified lady, Marya Dmitrievna, who was taller than him, rounded his arms, shaking them in time, straightened his shoulders, twisted his legs, slightly stamping his feet, and with a more and more blooming smile on his round face, he prepared the audience for what was to come. As soon as the cheerful, defiant sounds of Danila Kupor, similar to a cheerful chatterbox, were heard, all the doors of the hall were suddenly filled with men's faces on one side and women's smiling faces of servants on the other, who came out to look at the merry master.

In the summer it is quite difficult to maintain sanity and a sober mind. Blame it on the scorching sun! Before you know it, your head will heat up and sunstroke will occur. But there is a salvation - a headdress or hat with large edges around the perimeter. Today we will talk about a hat - Panama, the history and essence of which is not as simple as it seems at first glance.

History of Panama

Despite the fact that the name of the hat makes us remember one small Central American country of the same name, Panama, in fact, the Panama hat has nothing to do with it.

The thing is that this headdress gained its fame during the construction of the Panama Canal among American builders. They, accordingly, brought a considerable number of Panama hats home. In the South American world, this hat is better known as the sombrero de paja toquilla. or simply “straw hat”, and its real homeland is in Ecuador, in the small town of Pila in the west of the country. Experts say that the highest quality and most comfortable Panama hats in the world are woven there.

Types of Panama hats

Despite the potential simplicity of this product, there are a huge number of types. Each type goes well with a certain style, and in some places complements it with freshness and a kind of freedom. We have chosen one of many classifications as an example.

• Bosa Blue– the embodiment of a symbiosis of elegance and simplicity. This hat is ideal for slow city life on hot days and at the same time looks very organic with most styles. Both a beach look with a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, and a casual suit with it will not hurt the eyes, but on the contrary, they will look very nice.
• Diamante– Bosa Blue’s main competitor, because its versatility borders in its absoluteness with the previous representative of this list. Actually, they differ only in that Diamante’s brim is straight, while Bosa Blue’s, on the contrary, is slightly curved in the back. Without giving a head start to its “competitor,” this hat goes well with almost everything and looks confident on any head.
• Gamber- almost a crown. With this handsome man on your head, you can do business with serious people, while remaining an elegant man in a white suit. When you wear this hat, all your requests and ideas become offers that cannot be refused. Yes, and I don’t want to, in general.
• Fedora-Calado– a hat for a gentleman who went on vacation in hot weather. Now you can stroll in style on the shore of the endless sea under the gentle streams of a light breeze with a glass of cocktail in hand, wearing summer white trousers and a light light shirt.
• Outback Macana- An excellent choice for Australian crocodile hunters and urban cowboys. If you like to spend nights by the fire in a dense forest, fishing, traveling wild in tropical countries, or simply emphasizing your brutality, then this headdress is ideal for you.

How to choose a Panama hat

The quality of a hat depends most on two factors: the quality of the straw and the quality of the weave. Straw is prepared from palm fibers and the most important thing in the selection of material is not so much the type of wood as the selection of these same straws. It is important that they are as similar as possible to each other in both thickness and length. Only then will it be possible to weave a truly strong panama hat. An equally (or even more) important role in this matter is played by the quality of weaving and the density of weaving per square centimeter. The higher the density, the higher the quality. Everything is logical!

Most often, Panama hats are divided into “Montecristi Fino” and “Montecristi Superfino” (the best and even better). This should determine the quality of the weaving, but these terms are so vague and so loosely used by some unscrupulous traders in the markets of beautiful Latin American cities that it is almost useless to navigate them. Even large manufacturers have not agreed on this issue among themselves. In order not to look at vague symbols, you can simply take and count the number of weaves per square centimeter. It's tedious, difficult, but it works.

In addition to the above quality criteria, there is one more – the so-called Vuelta. Vuelta are circles that appear around the edges of the hat when it is held against a bright source of light. For example, the sun. If you believe the tales of some Latin American sages, then the more circles and the larger they themselves are, the correspondingly higher the quality of the product. This method is probably good to some extent, but I really don’t advise you to take risks.

Prices for Panama hats

Perfection has no limits, but hatters do. The highest quality Panama hats have about two thousand weaves per square centimeter. Such incredibly sensitive and labor-intensive work takes the master from four to six months a year. Considering how much time it takes to make one such hat and the fact that there are only a dozen such hat makers left in the world, no one should be surprised by the fact that the price will be astronomical.

However, for comfortable wearing in a short period of time, a Panama hat with three to four hundred weaves will be enough and its price is unlikely to exceed a hundred dollars.

Care and storage of Panama hat

Even your grandchildren can inherit a real Panama hat if you pay due attention to it. Here are some tips:

• First, watch the band on your hat. It protects it from stretching and your forehead from scratches.
• Secondly, avoid wearing in the rain and generally avoid any contact with water, these hats do not tolerate moisture very well. Store in a dry place.
• Third, grasp the hat only by the top, not by the brim. Can greatly affect the shape.
• Fourth, when cleaning, use a brush with soft bristles.

By following these tips, you can extend the life of your hat by years.

Hatter etiquette

Great power is hidden in Panama, and, as you know, with great power comes great responsibility. Therefore, it is worth adhering to a number of rules that should be followed not only by the owner of a Panama hat, but also by the owner of any headdress.

First you need to learn how to take off your hat in time. If you are not a king, czar or shah, then when entering someone else's home, holy or religious places, it is better to remove your headdress. When greeting someone (especially a woman), it is also better to take off your hat, but as a sign of respect you can get by by simply tearing it off your head a couple of centimeters. You should also take off your hat when going to the theater, cinema or a big concert, so as not to ruin the view for anyone present. In the workplace, it is also better to go without a hat, if it is not part of the uniform.

You can leave your hat on when going to a bar, restaurant or nightclub. For some business meetings, this approach is also welcome.

Finally

Today we looked at such a simple on one side, but such a multi-faceted Panama hat. It will become an essential summer accessory both for a walk in shorts along the coast and for a business meeting. Not many accessories can boast such versatility, so we can safely recommend a Panama hat for people who collect.

For a long time, almost until the 1960s, the appearance of a man on the street without a headdress was considered, if not a crime, then a violation of all decency, and demonstrated his extremely low social status (women, by the way, got rid of this restriction a little earlier). Representatives of the stronger sex have turned the requirement of etiquette into a way of expressing their individuality, introducing into fashion a wide variety of hats and caps of various styles. found out how the respectable woven “Panama hat” eventually became the Panama hat of military personnel, rappers and hipsters.

It's all about the palm

As is often the case, the name is deceptive: Panama did not first appear in Panama. Hats made from the fiber of the toquilla palm tree from the cyclanthaceae family (Spanish name toquilla, Latin - Carludovica palmata, local - hipihape), were first woven in Ecuador. However, in everyday life the toquilla was called the Panama palm, which led to confusion of concepts. However, it does not matter where the hat appeared: it quickly became fashionable, replacing the flat straw boaters that were popular in the 1900-1930s.

Since straw is the dried stems of herbaceous plants, Panama hats can also be called straw hats: according to the botanical classification, cyclanthaceae are perennial herbaceous plants. They were woven, like European straw hats, by hand, and local artisans, whose skills were passed on from generation to generation, achieved considerable skill in their craft. Toquilla palm fiber is flexible enough for weaving and holds its shape well, and this is important in the production of hats: the fact is that classic Panama hats did not at all resemble what is understood by them now. Ecuadorian craftsmen, many of whom were descendants of Indians, quickly mastered the assortment that whites from the privileged class were ready to buy.

Frame: the film “Charlie Chan in Panama”

These were hats with clearly defined brims, wide or medium, with a contrasting grosgrain or satin ribbon around the crown, classic shapes - a fedora with a crown flattened at the front on both sides, an optimo with a narrow protrusion running through the center of the top of the hat and crown, as on British tropical helmets , a planter (or “telescope”) with a recessed top of the hat like a lens, and finally a golf with a mesh top are the most informal and lightest of the Panama hats.

Kinopanama

The light, light-colored hat made from palm fiber has become something of a movie star. It was worn by on-screen sex symbols of the first half and middle of the last century, and after them by modern screen beauties in costume films on historical themes. Panama hats of various styles are seen walking around on the screen in “Casablanca”, in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Peter O’Toole in “The Last Emperor”, in “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge”, in “The Man Who Would Be King”.

Photo: Zelig Shaul / ACE Pictures / REX / Shutterstock

The resemblance of a Panama hat to a tropical helmet is not accidental: brave British soldiers, being on vacation or retiring, wanted their civilian hats to be somewhat reminiscent of a military uniform. Tropical helmets were originally hard, made of cork. But later, military headdress began to be sewn from thick cotton fabric - canvas and tarpaulin. It retained the shape of a traditional helmet with a round crown and brim (wide or medium width), and this “military hat”, in which the Americans, in particular, fought in Korea and Vietnam, also came to be called a Panama hat.

Shot: “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”

This headdress was much more like what we call a Panama hat now. Unless the only protective color possible in the army is khaki or sand, or camouflage coloring in ordinary urban life is replaced by any shade: from white and yellow to blue or pink. This modern Panama hat, or sun hat, appears on screen in the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). The film takes place in 1971, but A-list movie star Depp made the seemingly old-fashioned hat extremely popular: representatives of youth subcultures of the 1990s began to wear it.

Our man in Panama

For the Soviet people of the 1930-1950s, for whom the warm season lasted at best three months (residents of resort provinces are not taken into account), Panama was associated with children's cotton Panama hats, which were called Panama hats rather ironically, almost as a mockery over the "bourgeoisie". Men wore mostly thick cotton caps in the summer. This headdress was considered and looked like a symbol of belonging to the working class: where have you seen a monument to the great Lenin or the leader of the people Stalin in a hat?

In the 1930-1940s, boaters were still encountered - on vacation and even in cities, mainly among the “old-regime old men” from among university professors and people in artistic professions. Then this obsolete hat disappeared. A symbol of the fact that low-crowned straw hats turned into an anachronism in the post-war years is Lagin’s fairy tale about Hottabych, where a thousand-year-old genie wears a boater, and with difficulty agreed to exchange his turban for this hat. The original panama hat could only be afforded by very wealthy people from among functionaries, the top of Soviet industrial management, and the highest-ranking artistic intelligentsia.

Summer hats made of fabric in the USSR were worn only by women and children for a long time. Men's textile Panama hats became appropriate in our patriarchal latitudes only after their masculinity, as in the West, was “legalized” by the army. Military advisers and ordinary soldiers who served in warmer climes - from Soviet Central Asia to Vietnam, Egypt and Afghanistan in peaceful life - introduced Panama hats into men's fashion: first, of course, dacha and fishing, from where they gradually, with the general liberalization of street style in perestroika and post-perestroika years, moved into the city.

Break, hip-hop and rap panamas

But the real peak of fame came for Panama hats with the advent of hip-hop. Moreover, hip-hoppers wore a very special style, which came from practical Asian, mainly Japanese fashion: a bucket-shaped textile hat with a high crown, a round bottom and a lowered brim of medium width. In Southeast Asia, such hats were produced to protect from cold, rain (made of waterproof fabrics, including quilted ones) and the sun, and from this practical Japanese street fashion, similar Panama hats moved into hip-hop culture in the 1990s. They were made of denim and canvas and decorated with large logos. The image of a young “subculturist” in a Panama hat pulled down over his eyes and wide trumpet jeans became a textbook and was often depicted in comics.