understand why. Master weavers from a little village in Ecuador spent months weaving the fine fibers into a linen-like weave and once that was done, the fedora was shaped and hand-blocked. These are experts in the field working by hand on each hat, one at a time.
An article reprint from the New Yorker Magazine, circa 1930, read: "There are only thirteen weavers in the world able to turn out hats light enough and fine enough in texture to be worth $1,000 dollars. All thirteen are Inca Indians, living in one town, Montecristi, in the mountains of Ecuador. It takes each man three months to a year to make one of these hats."
Okay, a lot has changed over the years, but some things are still the same: the number of such craftsman is still declining, while the village of Montecristi is still very much the heartland of exceptional woven hats. It's also true that there really are Montecristi Panama hats so finely woven, so rare, that both their beauty (and prices) can take your breath away.
These Montecristi hats (more popularly known as Panama hats, because Panama was once the great trading center where most of them were bought and sold) do come in lesser rows of weave per inch, which brings down their prices accordingly. The Brent Black Classic and The Montecristi Pork Pie hat are examples of this (somewhat) more affordable hat art.
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