Ah, summer!
The return of the hot weather, holiday at the seaside and Pitti Uomo, this beautiful Italian garden of experimentation in which elegance is often abused by the bidding.
In the heart of the Tuscan valleys, the scent of Chianti vines and olive groves infuses the air, carried by the iodine breeze of a Mediterranean white mistral, sliding among the masterpieces of the Renaissance to refresh the influencers who have prepared for the event their most beautiful layering.
There is nevertheless one element that the wind has never been able to deviate from its course: the hats. They bloom in the midst of this Florentine utopia on the heads of sophisticated gentlemen.
As much to protect them from the sharp rays of the sun as to bring – it must be admitted – a good boost to the presence of the majority of them: because the choice of an adapted headgear brings as much charm that of dynamism to an outfit.
And instantly helps to differentiate a stylish man from one who will take a sunburn on the nose.
Also, before asking how to choose and wear a hat in the summer, let’s have fun dissecting it, to better understand it.
ANATOMY OF A HAT
The hat answers, you see, to a very simple vocabulary:
The edge is the horizontal part of the hat. It protects from sun or rain and its width and shape have a direct impact on the aesthetics of the hat.
The cap is the vertical part of the hat. She dresses her head. Its height is also a characteristic element of the hat.
The braid is the band that dresses and hides the cap of the hat. It can be grosgrain cotton, linen, silk or even leather. It is attached to the cap at the level of the lateral node, which can take many forms.
The crown (or the bottom) is located on the upper part of the cap and can take different forms depending on the two folds visible in front or laterally (we speak of pinch or mascot cap ).
PANAMA
SHORT STORY
He is undoubtedly the hero of the summer, because it can suit all heads and in many styles.
Panama is a hat woven from Ecuador palm straw (toquilla).
Made in Ecuador since the 17th century, it was adopted by miners transiting through Panama to California during the gold rush during the first half of the 19th century. In 1906, US President Theodore Roosevelt was photographed wearing this straw hat during a visit to the Panama Canal, offering the hat its name and popularity.
The fineness of weaving of palm straws depends on the quality of Panama.
Several methods are used to express one’s rank, but they have several limitations:
In the city of Cuenca, the rank is encrypted from 1 to 20, but it only makes sense within the same factory, because different suppliers in the city do not use the same gradation.
In the city of Montecristi, emblematic city of high-end Panama, the rank is designated by its name, of which four are majority: standard, fino, superfine, extra fino. The problem here, too, is that each supplier in the city can give the name that suits him because there is no consensus.
Only one method of calculation is sufficiently reliable: the number of knots per inch (weaves per inch). Since this number can be calculated horizontally or vertically and the density in knots is not quite the same, the number of knots per square inch (weaves per square inch) is used for even greater precision.
