PANAMA HATS

Evening Star, Issue 23122, 23 November 1938, Page 19

PANAMA HATS

The Panama hat is not, and never was, made in Panama. It is primarily an Ecuadorian product, though some are woven in the southern provinces of Colombia. Cuenca, a small town in the mountains of Ecuador, is the centre of the world’s Panama hat industry. The hats are woven from the fibres of the toquilla palm,- that grows only on the Ecuadorian coast and in parts of the Ecuadorian Amazon. It is commonly believed that Panama hats are woven under water. This is not true. The weavers jerk the straw into .place and weave the hat upon a wooden form placet! on a wooden block standing between the knees. For a hat that was woven in a week —provided it complies exactly with the dimensions given—the Indian may be paid as much as 10 cents. The hat is then washed, fumigated with sulphur fumes, blocked, ironed, and brushed with milk of sulphur, which is dried and beaten in. It is. brushed over with a dry cloth to shine it, and the loose ends of the straw are cut off. Some hats require six months to weave. I have seen some so fine that they look like linen. You can roll them tight enough to draw them through a finger ring. In New York such a hat sells for 100 dollars, adds James Saxon Childers.