In which country were Panama hats invented? Light straw hats. National headdress Panama
The history of panama hats can be traced back to the 16th century. The Incas are considered the first, these hats. When Francisco Pizarro and his Spanish conquistadors arrived in what is now Ecuador in 1526, many coastal indigenous people wore hats woven from straw.
Traditional woven Ecuadorian straw hats were declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO on December 6, 2012.
How did Panama get its name?
Much later, in 1835, an enterprising businessman Manuel Alfaro settled in the small town of Montecristi in the province of Manabí. His goal was to organize the export of the highest quality straw hats produced there. However, to meet the growing demand for these products, it was necessary to increase production, so in 1836 a hat factory was opened in the city of Cuenca, located in the province of Azuay.Manuel Alfaro created an effective commercial system, thanks to which straw hats became extremely popular. In the 1800s, Ecuador was not a busy trading place, but the thin isthmus linking North and South America, Panama, was relatively close by, where desirable buyers could be found.
At that time, people from the west or east of North America could reach the opposite side of the continent in several ways. It was possible to cover enormous distances by land; board a ship and circumnavigate South America; swim to Panama, cross a narrow strip of land and re-board the ship on the other side. Since the latter method was the fastest and safest, many people migrated through Panama, buying beautiful hats along the way.
Panama was also a place of international trade, from where South American goods were exported to countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. Hats were no exception. Alfaro's idea was an instant success, and the straw headdress soon became very fashionable. However, it was assigned the name of the place of purchase, and not the place of manufacture. This is how the world received Panama.
The further popularity of the hat is associated with the construction of the Panama Canal. In 1904, US President Theodore Roosevelt visited the construction site, where he was photographed wearing a Panama hat. Photography became widespread not only in the United States, but throughout the world.
Among the celebrities who liked to wear Panama were former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, American actor Humphrey Bogart, sweet-voiced Frank Sinatra and Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt.
Panama production today
Although Panama hat has lost its former popularity over time, it is still in great demand. Today, Panama hats are produced in many Latin American countries. The leading exporter is Ecuador, whose hats are of the highest quality.The most valuable hats are those with 1,600 to 2,000 fiber weaves per square inch. They are sold at very high prices. Less than 300 weaves means the quality is low. The work of making straw hats provides income for thousands of Ecuadorians, but only a few craftsmen are able to make Panama hats of the highest quality.
In this article we will talk about one very famous and popular summer headdress. Who doesn’t know what kind of hat is a Panama? Of course, everyone knows her. In its original form, the Panama hat is woven from elegant straw and bordered along the lower edge with elastic straw brims.
It would seem, what is so unusual about it that made it the subject of study of this article?
Lexical paradox
This question is simple. Try asking your friends: “In which country is the national headdress called Panama?” What do you think the majority of respondents will answer? They will say without hesitation: “In Panama!”
And, of course, if they bet on the similarity of the name of the hat and the Central American country, they will be mistaken. After all, human inconsistency in coming up with names is well known. In particular, this hat, created in one country, is named after another.
Ecuador is the real birthplace of Panama
To be precise, the birthplace of the “Ecuadorian hat” is the city of Cuenca, the cultural capital of Ecuador. Representatives of creative professions prefer to settle here. And it is in the area around this city that the endemic Ecuadorian palm tree - carludovica palmata - grows en masse - a source of raw materials for making panama hats. The grateful residents of this country call it a “national treasure.”
In the 17th century, the inhabitants of Cuenca first decided to use the dried leaves of the mentioned palm tree (toquilla), cut into strips, to weave light, durable and “breathable” headdresses. Local entrepreneurs, realizing the benefits, organized mass production of these wonderful hats in the 19th century.
By the beginning of the 18th century, almost every resident of Ecuador wore a new and very comfortable national headdress - Panama.
In what country does this not happen? The popular folk craft grew into a thriving segment of light industry, and its products, filling the domestic market, began to be exported.
According to established tradition, “Ecuadorian hats” are still woven exclusively by women. This is very painstaking work. It sometimes takes a craftswoman several months to make a particularly elegant, expensive Panama hat.
Fashion paradoxes
During the emergence of a widespread fashion for Panama hats in the world (and this was in the first decades of the 20th century), the famous canal was being built between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, passing through the territory of Panama - a small state located on the isthmus between the continents of South America and North America.
By this time, Ecuador had already established the production of many thousands of Panama hats and was looking for new markets for their sales. This profitable business reached a new level at the beginning of the last century. At that time, Panama was on the news of the whole world (in connection with construction). And Ecuadorian hats poured in there, so that bales of sombrero de Panamá (as it was called at that time) were then delivered to different countries on merchant ships.
In addition, this product was a bestseller: the people who built the Panama Canal, 81.6 km long and 150 m wide, however, like the people who celebrated its opening, mostly wore Panama hats on their heads. Who knows, maybe this also contributed to the transfer of the name of the majestic structure to the headdress that had become extremely popular.
Fashion is an amazing thing. After all, if you follow the logic of things, then (excuse the tautology) Panama is not the national headdress in Panama. (In which country it is a national treasure, we have already mentioned.) But in order not to be unfounded, we will try to prove that it is certainly not in Panama.
Panama is not the birthplace of Panama
It is very easy to prove that the population of this small state, even theoretically, could not have created this remarkable national headdress - Panama.
In which country was Panama previously only one of the provinces? Answer: Colombia. The reason for the spontaneous separation of part of the country into a sovereign state was purely external. The US capitalists financing the canal construction project calculated that it would cost them less under these conditions. Appropriate political pressure was applied to Colombia, and... Panama appeared.
Therefore, in the correct answer to the question “Which country’s national headdress is Panama?” The name of the country - Panama - should not be present.
Let us summarize the proof of the obvious: at the beginning of the 20th century, the word “national” was not even logically applicable to Panama, a state created bureaucratically and coercively, having a subsidiary pan-Colombian origin and history
About the production of Panama hats
Several million of them were created annually in the last century. Gradually, the national headdress - Panama - began to be characterized by more diffuse generic characteristics. In which country was it produced?
Soon, taking the Ecuadorian style of headdress as a basis, the elastic straw began to be replaced with dense fabric. Over the decades of production of Panama hats, fashion designers have shown their imagination. Thanks to them, Panama hats were no longer called a specific type, but an impressive assortment of summer hats. Whether they are made for resort holidays from thick fabric with narrow brims, or for military service - with wider brims.
However, among this variety, real connoisseurs will prefer authentic Panama hats woven from palm leaves, which are produced exclusively in Ecuador. Unfortunately, this traditional and original craft is now continued by only a few enterprises. One of them is the Homero Ortega factory (Cuenca).
Conclusion
It is noteworthy that the name of the Panama hat is a homonym for the name of the Central American country. However, this does not at all determine the origin of this headdress. Obviously, the decisive argument about its belonging to the traditions of a particular people is the answer to the question “Which country has a Panama hat in its national costume?” And this country is Ecuador.
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.
Panama- headdress.Most often, a Panama hat is a lightweight hat with elastic brims made from 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)
Natasha blushed and laughed.- Well, what about you, mom? Well, what kind of hunt are you looking for? What's surprising here?
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.
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.
