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FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM<\/p><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThis article appeared in the Sunday, June 16 (Father\u2019s\u00a0Day), issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin Sunday Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The Count of Montecristis<\/h1>\n
Honolulu ad man Brent Black is rejuvenating the art of<\/em>
\n weaving and shaping the classic Panama hat<\/em><\/p>\nby Nadine Kam<\/p>\n
T<\/strong>he grab and the pinch drive Brent Black crazy. Sure, you\u00a0might see it done by one of those well-heeled cads in 1940s film noirs, but\u00a0that\u2019s no way to treat a Panama hat.<\/p>\n
The right way to pick up a Panama hat is much more gingerly\u2014hardly\u00a0instinctual for a man\u2019s man\u2014and that is to pick it up carefully on\u00a0opposite ends of the brim with one\u2019s fingertips, place it on one\u2019s\u00a0head, lightly pulling it snug in front and back, while delicately pushing\u00a0down.<\/p>\n
Pinching the hat at its center just bends the straw, and over time this\u00a0creates a crease sharpened to the point of snapping.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven steel will snap if you keep bending it back and forth,\u201d\u00a0Black said, \u201cand straw is much more fragile.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s something few intend in light of the hats\u2019 cost, starting\u00a0at a few hundred dollars up to $30,000.<\/p>\n
When one of his customers sent a hat back within a week of purchase for a\u00a0size adjustment, Black said, \u201cI took a look at it, and I was furious; it\u00a0was already heavily creased. It was really bad customer service, but I gave\u00a0that guy hell. I really love those hats, and I take it personally when someone\u00a0ruins one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like if you plant a garden and someone comes tromping\u00a0through it. It\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, show a little respect, huh?\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n
BLACK IS NOT exactly the kind of guy you\u2019d expect to be\u00a0practicing the dying Old World art of hat blocking, or shaping. If his mom had\u00a0her way, he\u2019d be a doctor, having had an expensive education toward\u00a0donning that white coat and stethoscope at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n
He might also have followed in his father\u2019s\u2014a longtime editor of\u00a0the [Cincinnati Enquirer]\u2014footsteps, but soured on journalism when he\u00a0realized police beat stories weren\u2019t exactly world-altering material. He\u00a0also didn\u2019t like the idea of endangering his life by covering crime in\u00a0Baltimore\u2019s ghettos, either.<\/p>\n
He eventually found his place as a creative director for Saatchi &\u00a0Saatchi in San Francisco before finding his niche in Honolulu\u2019s\u00a0advertising community. Aston Hotels & Resorts is one of his clients, and\u00a0that television ad with the couple shifting around in bed to highlight late\u00a0checkout is one of his.<\/p>\n
His parents could never figure out how he makes a living, but they did have\u00a0one early indicator into his current passion in that even as a kid, he liked to\u00a0dress up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d go to school in Davy Crockett outfits and Superman suits.\u00a0My mom used to look at me and think I was weird but figured whatever\u2019s\u00a0happening on the other end must be OK or I\u2019d be teased. But most of the\u00a0other kids thought it was pretty cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t that I liked hats so much, but hats defined what\u00a0it is I was,\u201d Black said. \u201cIf I was Davy Crockett, I had to have\u00a0the coonskin cap. If I was an Indian, I\u2019d have the feather headdress. If\u00a0I was Sherlock Holmes, I\u2019d have the detective hat. Without even realizing\u00a0it, I\u2019d developed an appetite for hats.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Brent Black A weaver hangs straw under her house to dry. This is the start of a hat-making process that can take more than eight months to complete.<\/p><\/div>\n
And that was the mind-set he took to South America on his\u00a0first trip there in 1988 shortly after he arrived in Hawaii. What he found\u00a0amazed him: hats that weighed less than stationery before the leather hatband\u00a0and outer ribbon were added. Each was created painstakingly by hand, with rows\u00a0of weave\u2014up to [50] per inch\u2014made with straw as fine as thread. The\u00a0weavings felt more like fabric than straw. \u201cI have linen pants that \u00a0aren\u2019t as fine,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n
In the preface to the French coffee-table book \u201cPanama, a Legendary\u00a0Hat,\u201d Black wrote of his first encounter with a genuine Montecristi hat,\u00a0saying, \u201cAs I weighed it in my hands, held it to the light to study the\u00a0impossibly fine weave, felt its suppleness between my fingers, and listened to\u00a0an old weaver lament the impending extinction of this centuries-old art\u2014I\u00a0knew my life had found its mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black said it broke his heart to know that the art form was dying and that\u00a0future generations might be deprived of the sensory pleasure of feeling,\u00a0seeing, smelling a Panama hat.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy immediate way to save the hats was to buy them,\u201d Black said.\u00a0\u201cI never quibble about price. I just pay what the weavers ask, sometimes\u00a0more than they ask. Other people started copying what I do, and at first I was\u00a0ticked off, but I realized the more exposure these hats get, the better odds\u00a0they\u2019ll survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a pretty simplistic economic view of the world, which is, if\u00a0people aren\u2019t making them, then it\u2019s because people aren\u2019t\u00a0buying them,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd here I am; I\u2019m interested in\u00a0advertising and marketing, and maybe the person marketing them could be\u00a0me.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he were around in the 1800s, the task would have been easy. Black might\u00a0have struck a deal with the weavers and then sat back in a hammock to sip rum\u00a0the rest of his life as the hats\u2019 fame spread. It became known as the hat\u00a0of kings, having landed in the hands of European royalty. Napoleon Bonaparte\u00a0had one, as did Edward VII of England.<\/p>\n
The hat got a boost in the late 1800s when the U.S. government bought 50,000\u00a0of them for troops headed to the Caribbean to fight the Spanish-American War.\u00a0Gold miners en route to California also sought them out.<\/p>\n
Though the hats look just as good on women, the hats\u2019 macho reputation\u00a0caught on via film as Clark Gable donned one in \u201cGone With the\u00a0Wind,\u201d Humphrey Bogart wore one in \u201cCasablanca\u201d [he did not]\u00a0and Charlton Heston followed suit in \u201cThe Naked Jungle.\u201d And\u00a0let\u2019s not forget Anthony Hopkins, who used it as a symbol of power as\u00a0Hannibal Lector in \u201cSilence of the Lambs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hats also found fans in Japan\u2019s Emperor Akihito, Al Capone,\u00a0Winston Churchill and Harry Truman, hitting a peak in the \u201940s and\u00a0\u201950s, when society became less formal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old etiquette is not supported,\u201d Black laments.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s no more hat check, so if you\u2019re wearing one, what do\u00a0you do with it?<\/p>\n
\u201cBut people do appreciate it. They\u2019ll call out from their cars,\u00a0\u2018Hey, nice brim, brah!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
TO BE CORRECT, a Panama hat should be re-christened Ecuador\u00a0hat. Montecristi is the small town in Ecuador, between Quito and Cuenca [not\u00a0correct], where the indigenous toquilla palm (Carludovica palmata), from which\u00a0the hats are made, grows. It is not actually a true palm, but a perennial herb\u00a0named by Spanish King Charles Ludovic IV [not accurate], who was among the\u00a0first to popularize the hats in the West.<\/p>\n
Weavers peel, boil and dry the palm fronds before splitting them to desired\u00a0widths with their thumbnails. The quality of the straw is crucial to the\u00a0finished product.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t take lauhala and split it that fine,\u201d Black\u00a0said, although he said he\u2019s seen outstanding examples from the Cook\u00a0Islands.<\/p>\n
But Ecuador isn\u2019t exactly a bustling business capital, so weavers\u00a0headed north, past Colombia, to trade central, Panama. Buyers there since the\u00a0late 1800s simply assumed the hats were made in Panama.<\/p>\n
Black returned home from Ecuador wanting to learn more about them and\u00a0discovered Tom Miller\u2019s \u201cThe Panama Hat Trail,\u201d a book\u00a0that\u2019s been described as telling \u201ca captivating story of cultures\u00a0in collision, raw capitalism, and an exotic, humorous journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe author changed my life. I read the book and now I\u2019m doing\u00a0this,\u201d he says on a Saturday afternoon as he wet down, steamed and shaped\u00a0his hats on elegant blocks that he discovered in Nashville as he continues\u00a0scooping up old tools from hat shops where owners are calling it quits or from\u00a0heirs who have no use for them.<\/p>\n
Once the hats dry, they retain the \u201cmemory\u201d of the blocks,\u00a0bouncing back into shape after use.<\/p>\n
Just weeks ago, Black was in Massachusetts, honing his blocking skills.\u00a0\u201cThe first couple days was like coming out of a martial arts\u00a0class,\u201d he said. \u201cI had blisters, patches of skin were coming off\u00a0my hand, my chest was sore, I pulled a muscle.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is necessary because, although the Ecuadorians are excellent weavers,\u00a0he said he doesn\u2019t consider their blocking skills comparable.<\/p>\n
Progress has meant \u201cthe hat market has been collapsing since the early\u00a01960s, and what\u2019s left isn\u2019t high quality; it\u2019s mass-market,\u00a0one size fits thumb [huh?],\u201d Black said [I don\u2019t think I did say\u00a0that]. \u201cIn stores in Quito, I\u2019ve seen beautiful hats that have been\u00a0wrecked by whoever shaped them. They\u2019re over-ironed,\u00a0over-stiffened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the hats you see in stores today are shaped on a hat press, a\u00a0hydraulic press that\u2019s slammed down with a whole lot of pressure, so much\u00a0so that the straws become shiny\u2014that\u2019s OK, if that\u2019s what you\u00a0want\u2014but it also weakens the straw so that [the] hat doesn\u2019t last\u00a0that long. It\u2019s like Zircons are not bad-looking, but they\u2019re not\u00a0diamonds.\u201d<\/p>\n
FMORRIS\u00a9STARBULLETIN Brent Black blocks a women\u2019s \u201clace\u201d hat to shape its crown and form its brim.<\/p><\/div>\n
So he imports pre-blocked hats from Ecuador with simple round crowns that\u00a0work to keep the sun out of farmers\u2019 faces but which lack sex appeal in\u00a0the West, where style reigns. [I have no idea what this is supposed to mean; I\u00a0am not aware that I am involved with anything resembling the hats described.\u00a0bbb]<\/p>\n
He\u2019d prefer leaving the labor of blocking the hats to someone else [I\u00a0would NOT!], but resigned himself to the task to get the quality he desires.\u00a0His exacting demands have led some craftsmen and suppliers to tell him to take\u00a0his business elsewhere. (Is it so wrong to ask for thread so fine on the\u00a0hat\u2019s inner leather band that it won\u2019t feel like a nubby ridge\u00a0pressed against someone\u2019s delicate forehead?)<\/p>\n
Few others would be crazy enough to insist on having the hats made by hand,\u00a0beginning to end, but Black\u2019s attention to detail has paid off in that\u00a0his hats have won the affection of celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger,\u00a0Robert Mondavi, Martin Sheen and Bill Cosby. Bobby Brown bought one for Whitney\u00a0Houston while on Maui, and it\u2019s Black\u2019s hats that appear throughout\u00a0the film \u201cThe Legend of Bagger Vance,\u201d which starred Will Smith and\u00a0Matt Damon.<\/p>\n
As fussy as Black is, he said he\u2019s come across no more than six people\u00a0who can finish the hats to his specifications. \u201cA lot more people say\u00a0they can do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
AT SOME POINT, Black should have snapped to his senses.\u00a0Getting to Montecristi\u2014which he describes as \u201cone of the ugliest\u00a0towns I\u2019ve ever been in. There\u2019s no reason to go there except for\u00a0the hats\u201d\u2014is an endurance test that involves flying to Guayaquil\u00a0and boarding a series of sputtering buses [not correct]. During one of his\u00a0trips to [Ecuador] he contracted cholera. One time, his passport was stolen.\u00a0Another time, he was having dinner at a restaurant when a group of armed\u00a0bandits arrived and proceeded to rob everyone\u2026except him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank God for long tablecloths,\u201d he said. He had ducked under\u00a0the table and couldn\u2019t see all that was happening. \u201cJust before\u00a0they left, they fired one shot into the air, and I thought, \u2018My God,\u00a0they\u2019re going to start executing people.\u2019 Thankfully, they\u00a0didn\u2019t, but all the time I was thinking, \u2018Noooo, not here, not this\u00a0way, not now.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Not when he feels he has so much work to do through his nonprofit\u00a0Montecristi Foundation, which he formed to help the weavers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point of the foundation is first to take care of their health\u00a0needs, sanitation issues, food,\u201d Black said. \u201c[The] motto is\u00a0\u2018Salud, Comida, Arte\u2019\u2014\u2018Health, Food, Art.\u2019 In\u00a0order to save the art, [first we must] save the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve arranged for doctors and dentists to get there from the\u00a0nearest large town. I\u2019ve bought eyeglasses for the weavers, and staples\u00a0like rice, sugar and cooking oil. In the town where the master weavers are,\u00a0they told me they\u2019d never had a fiesta. But they have TV; they get around\u00a0so they know exactly what a party is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI brought in caterers and a disco-mobile. The town population grew\u00a0incredibly when they learned food was involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
FMORRIS\u00a9STARBULLETIN Brent Black receives the hats unfinished and unshaped. He puts the style into them with old-fashioned muscle power.<\/p><\/div>\n
Lately, he\u2019s learned from the weavers that they see more gray straws\u00a0appearing in their work. When that happens, the weaver has to remove the\u00a0undesirable straw and re-weave another in its place. It is a time-consuming\u00a0task when it already takes six weeks to six months to complete a hat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know whether it has an environmental cause or if\u00a0it\u2019s caused by a fungus or insect. I\u2019d like the foundation to\u00a0eventually get someone from the University (of Hawaii) to go work on that\u00a0problem. It would be tremendous for the weavers who won\u2019t have to lose\u00a0time from doing their work over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n
IN FRONT OF Black\u2019s work station is a smooth piece of wooded sculpture\u00a0that obviously started its life as a tree trunk, its branches now spread like a\u00a0tripod on the floor. It could be functional, but it seems too short to be a\u00a0stand. You could sit on the stump end, but with a circumference of about 6\u00a0inches, it would be quite painful.<\/p>\n
Now imagine this pedestal shoved against your chest as you bend over it,\u00a0arms dangling in front of you, your chest bearing the full weight of your\u00a0torso. This is how the weavers position themselves as they plait row after row\u00a0of the toquilla threads, and this is why few of Montecristi\u2019s youths are\u00a0anxious to learn the craft. Only about 20 master weavers remain, according to\u00a0Black. Many more turn out imperfect hats.<\/p>\n
The weavers know this and have learned to use what leverage they have to get\u00a0rid of them. \u201cThey may have eight good hats and two bad ones, and\u00a0they\u2019ll say to buy the eight I have to buy the two,\u201d Black\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Whenever Third World labor is involved in satiating the consuming desires of\u00a0the West, there is a question of how much helping others equals helping\u00a0oneself.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
COURTESY OF BRENT BLACK Crown Prince Akihito (now emperor) visited Waikiki in the \u201950s and brought his Panama hat.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fine balance,\u201d Black said. \u201cI don\u2019t\u00a0like the notion and I find myself guilty of wishing everything could stay the\u00a0same and not modernize, but Ecuador is not my Disneyland, and sure enough, when\u00a0they finished a nearby highway, half the population left. They went from 2,000\u00a0to 1,000 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s no exploitation anywhere near this. It\u2019s a\u00a0cottage industry. People do this work voluntarily. It\u2019s just one of the\u00a0ways to make money in a country where there are few opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people are poor, but they are not in some kind of sweatshop where\u00a0they have to put in 14, 16 hours a day. They work when they want and they do\u00a0other things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe irony is that people who think my prices are high think they can\u00a0go to Montecristi and get it cheaper. First of all, it costs a lot to get to\u00a0Montecristi\u2014about $1,500 coach from Honolulu if you work at finding the\u00a0best fare\u2014then it\u2019s a 24-hour trip, and then they find it\u2019s\u00a0still expensive, so they come home with (lower-grade) Cuenca hats.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nYes, that is the end of the article.<\/em><\/p>\n
I corrected the misspellings and annotated the most\u00a0bothersome of the inaccuracies, but left as-written many others. There are a\u00a0couple of places where the story just jumps from one thought to another in\u00a0mid-sentence. I have no idea what was up with that, probably lumps of the story\u00a0were left out by mistake when it was being prepared for printing. I greatly\u00a0appreciate the time the reporter invested in interviewing me and writing the\u00a0article. Thanks, Nadine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This article appeared in the Sunday, June 16 (Father\u2019s\u00a0Day), issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin Sunday Magazine. The Count of Montecristis Honolulu ad man Brent Black is rejuvenating the art of weaving and shaping the classic Panama hat by Nadine Kam The grab and the pinch drive Brent Black crazy. Sure, you\u00a0might see it done […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":1032,"parent":27,"menu_order":27,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-199","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n
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The Count of Montecristis Honolulu ad man Brent Black is rejuvenating the art of weaving and shaping the classic Panama hat by Nadine Kam The grab and the pinch drive Brent Black crazy. 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