Panama Hat Thread

Guardian Enzo said:

Thanks much. Ever hear any feedback on La Marqueza or Ecualama?



Those don't look bad at all, and his lower-grade Montecristis are quite reasonable. You don't know what grade is in the photos, of course...

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It's hard to tell for sure, but the lower grade hats are looking like Grade 6-8 to me. They would probably grade them 8-12...

Even the nicer Cuenca bodies I bought were sold as grade 12. By the wpsi count I would have graded them at 10. IME, the people selling the hats always seem to push the grade up a notch or two. Stetson sells a grade 8 Panama that I would grade 5-6.

IMO, Brent Blacks system of counting WPSI is the most honest and a good way to make the grading system consistent throughout the marketplace.

Can someone tell me if Panamabob is still around? About 10 years ago I had 5-6 hats from him and blocked by Art and sent to Tokyo. Here is one of them

daizawaguy said:

Can someone tell me if Panamabob is still around? About 10 years ago I had 5-6 hats from him and blocked by Art and sent to Tokyo. Here is one of them View attachment 240421

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No, P Bob was ripped off a couple times and went out of business.

He sure sourced some nice hats, and Art blocked them perfectly.

Thanks for this information. He had helped me source some fine Semi-Calado’s but they did take a huge amount of time. Will pull them out when I can someday. Here is a Tesi bought from JJ Hats in NYC and redone in Japan with a leather sweatband by the good folks at Metamorphosia - they do a fine job in cleaning and reblocking as well as leather bands and ribbon work here in Japan.

Guardian Enzo said:

Tukwila, are we still at the point where "What's the best value in a $100 Panama?" is a meaningless question? If you want something better than an entry-level Cuenca, you pretty much have to look at a Montecristi at $200 and up?

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Hey, this is the guy I mentioned earlier. Talk to him and see what he can do for you. He seems fair and knows a lot more than I do about Montecristi hats. @JC Montecristi Hat

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/panama-hat-thread.38152/page-222#post-2675451

Hello, I have news today.
I'm fine and I'm glad everyone's fine.

Before the pandemic, I ordered the weavers the first bodies of 5-inch crown Montecristis, this has never been done in Montecristi. To most readers this seems a bit exaggerated and even pretentious to say, but they are indeed the first of their kind. Well, I think.

I have seen Japanese, Canadian, and U.S. sellers (from states near Mexico)
Offer them, but there is a trick to all this.
The standard measures of a hat are 10-11 cm crown and 5-6 cm or if it is long brim 9-10 cm, there are Cuencas of 11-12 cm too. Generally, what you do is increase the crown and therefore reduce the brim.

For example, they buy a body of 10 cm crown and 10 cm brim, stretch the crown to 12.7 cm, the brim reduced to 7.3 cm. The same with 14 cm crowns, you stretch it, but for these you must buy a body with 12cm brim, so you have 8 cm brim.

What's wrong with that?
As you know, the crown and the brim are woven differently, when you stretch the crown you can see clearly, if the ribbon the change of weave does not cover it, as if the hat was glued or added to the other I will leave a picture so you can understand better what I am saying.

Maybe you will like it, but it's something similar like cutting and sewing the panama hats brim, for many it's a crime hahaha.

The other trick is to buy them in other places, like Cuenca (in the best of cases), Peru or Colombia, this last one is more for the stores that sell hats as massive consumption items, but they are considered the competition of the Cuenca Brisa, the Peru of the Montecristi. In Peru there are hats with crowns up to 16 cm, the same in Colombia, in Cuenca I once saw a 13.3 cm and a 14 cm but they are very rare, only on request I was told by the seller who made them, ie from 12 units onwards.

In summary, these hats are made in the correct way, that is to say, they were woven with the block of the exact size. However, they are not Montecrisiti, as much as they are called that way.
Now a few days ago I got to go pick them up, many weavers have died, in the areas where they weave low grades, several have woven me hats on more than one occasion. But since I picked them up, I made them finished and sent them. I will leave you a photos, they all have 5 inches of crown and 9-12.7-14 cm of brim, the qualities are 12 grades and 14 grades

Here I leave two videos, one is of the hat of Peru and another of Colombia

Nice hats and weaves!

Here is a Borsalino redone by Metamorphosia in Japan - leather sweat band and ribbon

And here is an Optimo from Toraya Ginza. It originally had a cloth sweat band and was sent to Optimo Chicago back in the days they did reform work for all - leather sweat band and ribbon replaced

Can anyone advise if this is in fact a Montecristi or is it from another region or indeed country?

thoughts?

[CITA = "daizawaguy, publicación: 2685926, miembro: 4064"] [ATTACH = full] 240724 [/ ATTACH] [ATTACH = full] 240725 [/ ATTACH]
¿Alguien puede aconsejar si esto es en realidad un Montecristi o si es de otra región o de hecho país? [/ QUOTE]

daizawaguy said:

View attachment 240724 View attachment 240725
Can anyone advise if this is in fact a Montecristi or is it from another region or indeed country?

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Well for being an Optimo I can't appreciate the beginning of the weave. But from your side, if it has a star shape it is a Cuenca Llano, generally the weave is a little more inclined or has a more horizontal sense. Let's continue, a 14 grade hat (196 wpsi) has 6 rings, every 2,3 or 2,2 grades a ring is created, if it has X grades it must have Z amount of rings, this is only referential for Montecristis, divide or multiply. If the center of crown has no rhombus shape it is not from Colombia. By elimination it can be from Peru finally, in case all the tests fail.

carouselvic said:

thoughts?

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Good hat because of the amount of rings and the shape of the weave I think it's a Montecristi, I'm surprised someone else has a hat with that size crown, but that's great, I went to several places except Pile, probably some weaver did this kind of work once, My client wanted lower grades. It's not that hard to have one, it's just getting the blocks made to measure. I guess it must be 18-20 grades, I'm just saying that at first glance.

@Tukwila @tropicalbob @Boomerang and anyone else who has been following my episodes with panamahatmall.com...
Some progress!
I got an email from panamahatmall.com today (almost 2 weeks after canceling and asking for a prompt confirmation) saying they Would give me my refund. That is literally all it said. Here’s the entire email:

Dear Gary
We will proceed to made the full refund
Regards

Daniela

I wonder if the credit card company got hold of them to let them know that they were likely to be facing a chargeback (I read somewhere that the merchants get fined for chargebacks and if it happens too often, they get blacklisted).

Machine woven hat of unknown fiber origin... perhaps casein? Not a milk dud, though - the form is quite beautiful.

The Shoe said:

@Tukwila @tropicalbob @Boomerang and anyone else who has been following my episodes with panamahatmall.com...
Some progress!
I got an email from panamahatmall.com today (almost 2 weeks after canceling and asking for a prompt confirmation) saying they Would give me my refund. That is literally all it said. Here’s the entire email:

Dear Gary
We will proceed to made the full refund
Regards

Daniela

I wonder if the credit card company got hold of them to let them know that they were likely to be facing a chargeback (I read somewhere that the merchants get fined for chargebacks and if it happens too often, they get blacklisted).

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That's all it said, and that says it all. No apology - how gracious. What are your plans now?

tropicalbob said:

That's all it said, and that says it all. No apology - how gracious. What are your plans now?

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My thoughts exactly.
Unless something comes up that is just too good to pass up, I’m probably going to just make do with my two Bailey summer hats and my summer cheesecutter. I’ve been spending too much during the coronavirus shutdown trying to upgrade my wardrobe to match my hats.
Also, this is not done yet. Judging by my experiences so far, it wouldn’t surprise if the money is another month away (if that’s the case, though, the credit card company will be hearing from me again).

Gary

Last Thursday this bottle of Scotch arrives........

Only it is not a bottle of Scotch......it is a HAT!!!!!!!
After a bit of steam......it is this hat......a Herbert Johnson Monticristi from England. from a fellow lounger.......


Wore it to dinner that night! Fits fine even though it was marked as two sizes to big.....I have run into this with other English hats for some reason......
I really like the wide ribbon and the bound edge on this one.