Now that you know less than you did, please take this opportunity to admire the best Panama fedora hat in the world, the $10K Montecristi Panama. Yes, it really does cost $10,000, and yes, it really is the best Panama hat in the world, so finely woven that it took nearly five hundred man hours and six skilled artisans to create. For you.
Take time too to examine the other Panama hats in Brent Black's Montecristi collection, including The Montecristi Aficionado and The Montecristi Classic. The fineness of the weave pretty much sets the price, so Panama hats with the same style but with different numbers of rows of weave per square inch will come in at very different prices.
Borsalino has an impressive selection of hand woven Panama fedora hats too. One of my favorites has to be The Sicilian Fedora in hemp. Very classy, very slick. There's also quite a sharp snap brim, The Panama Fino hat, blocked to perfection by those Italian masters, and on top of that, they created the Fino Turndown, as a variation on said perfection.
The Grade 20 men's Panama hat from Christys' London starts with thinly split straw. Work-intensive hand weave creates a virtually seamless body and suggests the name of this hat, The Elegant. Less pricey Panamas include Christys' Broad Brim Safari, a Grade 8 Panama hat with a three inch brim, as well as the bleached Snap Brim.
Women's Panama hats make up in beauty what they lack in numbers. When you see The Gemma and the equally lovely Antonia, Scala's quality Ecuadorian Panamas for women in warm vibrant Tuscan colors, you'll know what I mean. Add Borsalino's Francesca Panama and The Isabella to this highly select list, and I swear you'll wish you were a girl.
Additional Choices: Click here for Men's Straw Casual Hats; click here for Men's Straw Dress Hats; and click here for Women's Straw Hats.
Additional Choices: Click here
for Men’s Straw Casual Hats, and here
for Men’s Straw Dress Hats and here
for Women's Straw Hats.
Almost all hand made Panama hats for men are woven from the leaves of a perennial wild herb called a Panama-hat palm. I would tell you the Latin name, but it's really long and hard to say and I can't begin to spell it. 
