Collection: Panama Hats

Renowned for their fine handcrafted quality as well as their enduring aesthetic, Panama Hats will never go out of style!
For more, check out our Iconic Hats: The Panama Hat and Panama Hats: Determining Quality blog articles.

Panama Hats

Panama Hats are an iconic style that have withstood the test of time. Renowned for their fine handcrafted quality as well as their enduring aesthetic, Panama Hats continue to be a sought-after luxury item. Genuine Panama Hats hail from Ecuador where Toquilla palm straw (known as paja toquilla in Spanish) is grown, harvested, processed, and artisanally handwoven into hat bodies according to age-old tradition. From there, the hat bodies are either blocked and finished domestically or exported around the world to be blocked and finished by other hat manufacturers. 

Although not standardized across the industry, Panama Hat quality is traditionally "graded" on a scale between 3 to 30, wherein higher grades indicate higher quality. Again, it is important to note that this grading system is highly subjective and varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. The best way to determine quality is to look for consistency in the weave and coloring as well as the number of "waves" or lines present per inch (WPI). Finer and tighter weaves (i.e., higher WPIs/grades) require finer individual straw filaments and more of them - resulting in a more supple and flexible hat body. 

The greater the WPI and/or grade of the Panama Hat, the greater the skill of the artisan an