{"id":177,"date":"2016-07-07T21:21:01","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T21:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brentblack.com\/cart\/?page_id=177"},"modified":"2016-07-12T23:40:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T23:40:50","slug":"cigar-aficionado","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.brentblack.com\/cart\/aboutus-overview\/cigar-aficionado\/","title":{"rendered":"Cigar Aficionado Article About Montecristi Panama Hats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"cigar-aficianado-cover\"There has always been a strong connection between Panama hats and good\u00a0cigars.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cigar Aficionado<\/em> was kind enough to publish a lengthy article about my early\u00a0work with the hats and the hat weavers in the Montecristi area.<\/p>\n

The article originally appeared in the Summer 1993 issue. The text is\u00a0reprinted below.<\/p>\n

I have also included my photos which accompanied the text, plus some\u00a0extras.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"cigar-on-top\"<\/p>\n

The title is: \u201cOn Top\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

Subtitle:<\/small> \u201cA Montecristi is the best Panama hat but for how much\u00a0<\/em>longer?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sub-subtitle:<\/small> \u201cTwo of the dwindling number of elderly hat weavers who\u00a0make the world\u2019s finest Panama hats, Montecristis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPhotography by Brent Black.\u201d (I have included more photos than\u00a0appeared with the article.)<\/small><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"weaver-top\"I<\/strong>n the town of Montecristi, Ecuador, the art of weaving Panama\u00a0hats is slowly dying. Two generations ago, there were 2,000 weavers, but in the\u00a0last generation the number dwindled to 200, and now there are only 20 master\u00a0weavers left. A generation from now, because the current masters are in their\u00a070s and 80s, there may be none. With the finest hats taking at least two months\u00a0to finish and the best taking up to eight months, there is little time left to\u00a0instruct young weavers in the art. Obviously, there is an irony in that what\u00a0the world knows as a Panama hat actually comes from Ecuador. But the small,\u00a0somewhat dreary coastal town of Montecristi has been for centuries a place\u00a0where straw hats were woven. The difference is that the Montecristi Finos are\u00a0simply the finest straw hats in the world, even to the point of defying the\u00a0description straw. And with the makers dying off, the treasures of Montecristi\u00a0are in danger of disappearing.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\"bb-portrait\"<\/p>\n

Brent Black, the former Associate Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi\u00a0in San Francisco, isn\u2019t about to let that happen. Eight years ago, he\u00a0began an odyssey that eventually led to Montecristi, north of Guayaquil on the\u00a0Pacific coast of Ecuador. What began as a passion to photograph the hats, soon\u00a0turned into a mission to keep the hat making art alive. Black\u2019s quest\u00a0actually began in Mexico, in the Yucat\u00e1n city of M\u00e9rida, where he\u00a0read guidebook accounts of a crude Panama hat being woven in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d says Black today. \u201cI didn\u2019t\u00a0speak any Spanish, and even the shopkeepers and vendors who did speak a little\u00a0English couldn\u2019t understand what I wanted. No one knew what a Panama hat\u00a0was. In M\u00e9rida, they call the hats jipijapas\u201d (pronounced hee pee\u00a0hop as). Through a shopkeeper, he finally photographed some weavers in a nearby\u00a0town. But back in San Francisco, Black mentioned his hat search to someone at a\u00a0cocktail party. An attorney familiar with Ecuador told him about the hats\u00a0there\u2014and specifically about Montecristis. The information triggered\u00a0Black\u2019s plunge into extensive research about the Panama hat and\u00a0heightened his desire to see a Montecristi firsthand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"laughing-kid\"<\/p>\n

In 1988, he took off from his new base as Executive Creative Director of\u00a0Ogilvy & Mather in Honolulu to fly to Guayaquil. From there, he boarded a\u00a0series of brightly colored, sputtering buses and traveled one hundred miles up\u00a0the coast to the city of Manta, a commercial fishing village, where he stayed\u00a0overnight in the best hotel in town\u2014at $2 a night. The next morning, he\u00a0climbed aboard another bus to Montecristi. Before even getting off the bus, a\u00a0nine-year-old boy appeared at his elbow. \u201cPanama hat, meester. Panama\u00a0hat, meester.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t too many gringo tourists in Montecristi,\u201d\u00a0laughs Black. \u201cSo when one does show up, he\u2019s bound to attract a\u00a0certain amount of attention. And there is no rational reason anyone would ever\u00a0visit Montecristi except to buy hats.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"montecristi-colorful\"<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, there I was. A four-foot-tall, self appointed guide pulling at my\u00a0shirt sleeve, a dog of rather questionable ancestry sniffing at my legs and\u00a0before me lay the legendary town of Montecristi. To say the least, it\u00a0wasn\u2019t what I expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I had pictured in my mind a quaint, colorful little village\u00a0with revered artisans working patiently in their workshops. The reality was\u00a0quite different. Montecristi is rather drab.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"montecristi-shanty\"<\/p>\n

The one\u2014and two-story buildings are made mostly of wood and split\u00a0bamboo, and they just blend into the dry, dusty hillside on which the town is\u00a0built. Nothing colorful about them. Dogs and idlers lounge in whatever shade\u00a0they can find. Children play in the streets and open areas. Pigs occasionally\u00a0wander here and there. There are no hotels. No restaurants. The town only has\u00a0running water a couple of hours each morning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"girl-and-mother\"<\/p>\n

So, a little dismayed, I yielded to the tugging at my shirt sleeve and\u00a0followed my guide up the hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a brief stop to meet 20 or so members of his guide\u2019s family,\u00a0Black went with the guide to the home\/workshop\/warehouse of the largest\u00a0distributor of hats in Montecristi. It was a fairly substantial two-story\u00a0building made of square red brick. A large two-inch thick wooden door had been\u00a0slid open to allow access to and provide light for the approximately 20 by\u00a020-foot workshop. One man was working at finishing the weave on the edge of the\u00a0brim of a hat, and a second was trimming the long ends of straws protruding\u00a0from the inside of a hat. A dozen or so hat bodies in various stages of\u00a0completion were stacked at their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I had stepped into a legend,\u201d Black reflects.\u00a0\u201cThere they were\u2014Montecristi Finos. I had to actually pick one up\u00a0and look at it closely to be able to see the pattern of the weave. That\u2019s\u00a0how finely woven they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"old-man-and-hat\"<\/p>\n

Black was introduced to the distributor. Conversation was difficult because\u00a0Black spoke hardly any Spanish and the distributor didn\u2019t speak English.\u00a0With the help of a phrase book, a dictionary, pointing to objects and a lot of\u00a0smiles, Black says he was able to communicate that he was interested in the\u00a0hats and that he would be around for a week or so.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, and is, very important to me,\u201d Black\u2019s\u00a0earnestness comes through in the tone of his voice and the way he leans closer\u00a0as he talks, \u201cto do business the way it\u2019s done in Latin America,\u00a0not the way it\u2019s done in the U.S. I didn\u2019t want to blow into town,\u00a0buy some hats and leave. That\u2019s the way most gringos do business down\u00a0there. I wanted to get to know them and for them to know me before any money\u00a0changed hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black says the weavers were surprised when he pulled a chair over beside\u00a0them and sat down. The distributor handed Black a stack of hats for his\u00a0inspection and asked if he wanted to buy some. Black said yes, but not today.\u00a0\u201cManana.\u201d The distributor smiled, pulled his own chair over near\u00a0Black and went back to counting and sorting hats.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"many-hats\"<\/p>\n

Sitting among the weavers for most of the week, Black learned firsthand\u00a0about the craft, the history and the legend of the Montecristi Fino hat.\u00a0Occasionally, Black would carefully sort through hats offered to him, putting\u00a0aside ones he eventually wanted to purchase. And he constantly asked if there\u00a0were any even finer.<\/p>\n

The weavers explained that the really, really fine hats are becoming rarer\u00a0and rarer. They provided the estimate that there are maybe 20 master weavers\u00a0left and shook their heads when asked if children were learning the trade.\u00a0There\u2019s a reason why this trade is dying: The work is hard. The finest\u00a0hats are woven only at night, when it\u2019s cooler, to protect the straw from\u00a0being damaged by a weaver\u2019s sweat, which might build up during the steamy\u00a0equatorial days and stain the straw.<\/p>\n

The weaving is done from a bent-over position, with the weaver\u2019s chest\u00a0resting on a small cushion on top of a wooden block and his arms extended down\u00a0toward the floor, fingertips working on the fine straw. It\u2019s a posture\u00a0that is not just uncomfortable, it\u2019s painful. The younger generation, if\u00a0they weave at all, prefer to work on simpler pieces such as ladies\u2019\u00a0handbags, fans and animal figures, which take less time and effort to\u00a0complete.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"two-girls\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose,\u201d muses Black, \u201cthat the question is not so\u00a0much why people might not want to weave bent over all night, as it is how they\u00a0evolved the technique in the first place, and why they have practiced it for\u00a0centuries. Sometimes I wonder if a really good industrial engineer could study\u00a0the process and come up with some kind of jig or something that would allow the\u00a0weavers to create traditional hats without having to weave in the traditional\u00a0posture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the week, Black took photos of the weavers while they worked at\u00a0finishing the edges and trimming straw from the hats. They warmed to him and\u00a0took him out to other houses where other weavers were working.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that first incredible week, quite simply, I fell in love with\u00a0the people, the hats, the weaving, the art form. And I became determined to do\u00a0more than just buy a few dozen hats. I had found a mission. I wanted to\u00a0preserve the art, to ensure that three generations from now the world will\u00a0still be able to wear, admire and treasure Montecristi\u00a0Finos.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"women-outside\"<\/p>\n

Since that first visit, Black has made numerous trips to Montecristi. He has\u00a0become deeply involved with the weavers and the community. He often purchases\u00a0large quantities of food to be distributed to the weavers and their families\u00a0during times when weaving jobs are scarce and family incomes are down. He has\u00a0taken some of the older weavers into Manta for prescription glasses. He sends\u00a0Christmas presents every year. And, of course, everyone he photographs receives\u00a0a copy of the picture. If you visited Montecristi, you would see Black\u2019s\u00a0photos in almost every house.<\/p>\n

According to some of Black\u2019s pamphlets on the subject of Panama hats,\u00a0they are woven from various types of straw from all over the world: the\u00a0Caribbean, Polynesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, Africa and on and on.\u00a0Why have the straw hats woven in Ecuador risen to such an exalted position at\u00a0the top of the hierarchy? One of the most important reasons is the straw\u00a0itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"in-the-trees\"<\/p>\n

The source of the straw is a kind of palm, known in scientific jargon as\u00a0Carludovica palmata<\/em>. In Ecuador the plant is called toquilla, the straw is\u00a0called paja toquilla and the hats are called sombreros de paja toquilla.\u00a0Although it has been found naturally as far north as Panama and as far south as\u00a0Bolivia and has been successfully introduced into Mexico\u2019s Yucat\u00e1n\u00a0peninsula, nowhere are conditions better for the plant\u2019s growth than in\u00a0the coastal lowlands of Ecuador.<\/p>\n

The plants grow wild in abundance but could almost be said to be cultivated\u00a0by those who \u201charvest\u201d their straw. The unopened leaf chutes are\u00a0cut from the plants with machetes. The green leaf casing is removed. The vein,\u00a0spine and coarse edge are stripped away. Then, the opened, pale green palm\u00a0fronds are put into 50 gallon oil drums filled with water. A fire under the\u00a0drum boils the water. After an hour or so, the palm chutes are taken out of the\u00a0water and hung up to dry on a clothesline. As they dry, the long strands shrink\u00a0and curl lengthwise to form closed cylindrical fibers about a yard long. Each\u00a0fiber is then slit into yet narrower strands, and the straw is boiled and dried\u00a0again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"straw-man-hat\"<\/p>\n

The straw is then ready for the weavers.<\/p>\n

The hat weavers split the strands of straw to as fine a width as they are\u00a0comfortable working with. The best weavers work with straw so fine that one has\u00a0to look at the hat very closely to make out any weave pattern at all.\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re incredible,\u201d remarks Black. \u201cThe texture looks\u00a0more like fine linen than straw.\u201d The hats are woven from the center and\u00a0worked out toward the edge of the brim. When the end of one strand of straw is\u00a0reached, it is tied in a minute knot onto the next strand. This in turn forms\u00a0little rings, or vueltas, inside the hats. Some claim that the number of rings\u00a0inside a Montecristi directly relates to its quality. Black disagrees. He says\u00a0that the number of rings, while sometimes a general indication of fineness of\u00a0the straw, is not a reliable way to gauge the overall quality of the hat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be like counting the rings on a tree to decide how tall it\u00a0is,\u201d Black says. The metaphor is apt. At best, the number of rings may\u00a0roughly correlate to the fineness of the straw. But if the straw is badly\u00a0woven, with gaps or extra knots, then it is not a high-quality hat.<\/p>\n

Black recommends the following criteria when selecting a Montecristi: the fineness and tightness of the weave; the evenness of the weave; the uniformity\u00a0of color throughout; and the compact regularity of the \u201cback\u00a0weave\u201d, the narrow band at the edge of the brim. \u201cif you\u2019re\u00a0looking for a fine hat,\u201d cautions Black, \u201cnever buy one with a brim\u00a0that has been cut, folded under and sewn.\u201d His anger boils over as he\u00a0talks about what he almost considers a blasphemous affront to a handwoven hat.\u00a0It is a shortcut often taken in finishing cheaper hats so that the brims all\u00a0have the same width.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"stand-hat\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very finest hats will have\u2014I don\u2019t know quite how to\u00a0describe it\u2026\u201d Black searches for the words. \u201cThey almost\u00a0seem to glow. There is a kind of visual purity about them.\u201d He laughs at\u00a0his own passion about these hats. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s almost as if they\u00a0have an aura or halo around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weaving is not the only endangered art connected with hats. The practice of\u00a0fine hand blocking, or shaping, of the hats is also disappearing. \u201cWhen I\u00a0returned from Hawaii after that first trip, with a hundred or so Montecristi\u00a0Finos, I had to find someone to block them. They were just hat bodies. Flat on\u00a0top. Straight walled, round crown. No leather sweatbands. No ribbons. Nothing.\u00a0Without being blocked and finished, they were unmarketable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI began asking hat dealers in Hawaii and on the mainland. No one knew\u00a0anyone who could do it for me. Pretty soon, I was making phone calls all over\u00a0the country, following up on the thinnest of leads. Through a combination of\u00a0persistence and luck, I finally found Michael Harris of Paul\u2019s Hat Works\u00a0in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is incredible,\u201d says Black. \u201cI think of him as\u00a0the Sorcerer of Straw. He has the same reverence for the hats as I do. And he\u00a0knows how to block and finish them so that their art is elevated, rather than\u00a0compromised. He shapes them entirely by hand, one at a time, often employing\u00a0tools that haven\u2019t been made in decades and techniques that are all but\u00a0lost or forgotten. When he\u2019s finished, the hat is still just as soft and\u00a0flexible as it was in Montecristi. There are only a handful of blockers left\u00a0who can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"hat-stand-2\"<\/p>\n

It was critical to Black to have the integrity of the art extend all the way\u00a0to the consumer. He didn\u2019t use stiffeners or offer hats with the edges\u00a0trimmed and sewn. He wanted to make sure that people would wear what the\u00a0weavers had woven.<\/p>\n

Today, Black distributes his Montecristi Finos through Kula Bay Tropical\u00a0Clothing in Hawaii and Worth & Worth in New York. He insists on dealing\u00a0with retailers who appreciate the level of workmanship and the sense of history\u00a0of these fine Panamas. The completed hats sell for anywhere from $350 to $750\u00a0for a basic Montecristi to over $10,000 for a museum quality piece. You can\u00a0also buy hats at premium hat shops such as Paul\u2019s Hat Works in San\u00a0Francisco. There are several other grades of Panama hats that are more readily\u00a0available to the buying public, and more affordable. Coarser weaves are found\u00a0in most major cities of Ecuador, and even those hats have the telltale\u00a0signature of true handwoven Panamas: the small, concentric circles woven\u00a0outward from the center of the hat\u2019s crown. These hats may take a weaver\u00a0or several weavers just hours to complete. Interestingly, these Panamas often\u00a0retain characteristics of weaving native to their regions. Cuenca, a town in\u00a0the highlands south of Quito, is the home to a particularly handsome\u00a0herringbone design that is somewhat tightly woven and intricate. The price for\u00a0a more conventional straw hat varies from $50 to $110, and the best ones always\u00a0retain some suppleness when handled.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"4-hats\"<\/p>\n

Retailers who handle this kind of straw hat run the gamut and include\u00a0Barneys, Neiman Marcus, Bigsby & Kruthers and J. Peterman; check locally\u00a0with a major department store to see if it carries woven straw hats. Buyers\u00a0should also beware of many claims by manufacturers that refer to their hats as\u00a0genuine Montecristis when in fact they may be a lesser-grade Panama straw.\u00a0Check with an expert hatter such as Paul\u2019s Hat Works in San Francisco or\u00a0Worth & Worth in New York for authentication. If you happen to be in\u00a0Hawaii, genuine Montecristis also are sold by the Kula Bay Tropical Clothing\u00a0outlets in several of the main hotels.<\/p>\n

In the end, the buying public may be the determining factor for the future\u00a0of Montecristis straw hats. \u201cThe only way to save this art is to create a\u00a0demand for it,\u201d explains Black. \u201cOver the last few years,\u00a0I\u2019ve been able to purchase more Montecristi Finos than all other buyers\u00a0combined. As a consequence, there are more weavers weaving now than at any time\u00a0in the past twenty years. It\u2019s working. We may actually be saving the\u00a0art. But we have a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"chatting\"<\/p>\n

About a year ago, Black left Ogilvy & Mather to work full time on the\u00a0hats. Besides day to day operations of importing, wholesaling and searching for\u00a0additional retailers, Black sees his role as someone who is directly involved\u00a0with the weavers, doing everything possible to encourage and reward their\u00a0efforts.<\/p>\n

He is in the initial stages of proposing the creation of a Panama hat\u00a0museum, a project requiring the involvement of the Ecuadorian government. He\u00a0feels that it is vitally necessary for the craftsmen to feel that their art is\u00a0appreciated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"little-girl\"<\/p>\n

He also hopes to sponsor an annual contest which would award a substantial\u00a0cash prize for the finest Montecristi. He sees this as a way to stimulate the\u00a0weavers to strive for the highest levels of the art and to encourage young\u00a0people to pursue the craft. He has already instituted a program to number and\u00a0register each Montecristi Fino so that people who purchase a hat will be more\u00a0conscious of the importance of what they own.<\/p>\n

Most of all, Brent Black would like to see the public become aware of the\u00a0talented artists who create these treasures and who struggle to pass their art\u00a0on from one generation to the next. \u201cWhenever someone purchases one of\u00a0our Montecristi Finos, they are, in effect, commissioning another to be woven.It\u2019s the only way these treasures will continue to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

All photographs \u00a9 B. Brent Black, except the Cigar\u00a0Aficionado<\/em> cover.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has always been a strong connection between Panama hats and good\u00a0cigars. Cigar Aficionado was kind enough to publish a lengthy article about my early\u00a0work with the hats and the hat weavers in the Montecristi area. The article originally appeared in the Summer 1993 issue. The text is\u00a0reprinted below. I have also included my photos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":1006,"parent":27,"menu_order":16,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-177","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nCigar Aficionado Article About Montecristi Panama Hats - Brent Black Panama Hats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brentblack.com\/cart\/aboutus-overview\/cigar-aficionado\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cigar Aficionado Article About Montecristi Panama Hats - Brent Black Panama Hats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There has always been a strong connection between Panama hats and good\u00a0cigars. Cigar Aficionado was kind enough to publish a lengthy article about my early\u00a0work with the hats and the hat weavers in the Montecristi area. The article originally appeared in the Summer 1993 issue. The text is\u00a0reprinted below. 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