These come from a small hoard of vintage hats I unearthed in my own storeroom – some thirty-five years old, woven from a finer straw than I can usually get today. Their warm golden tone gives them away at a glance. The shape harks back to the 1930s and ’40s, the golden age of the Panama: flatter across the top than my standard Optimo, with a more abrupt break from crown to side – the silhouette Sydney Greenstreet wore so memorably in Casablanca. Genuinely old, genuinely scarce, and finished start to finish by hand.
