It can be seen in old western movies where gamblers are at a high-stakes poker table and have to pull up the brim of. It has a high crown with a flat brush, but the brim is much longer than the traditional style. It is easily recognized by its extra-long brim.

Our friend and favorite LA hat maker Nick Fouquet explored the gradual extinction of this cultural tradition during a recent trip to Ecuador, as capture in this video. The gambler style is another one of the cowboy hat shapes. Production in Ecuador is dwindling, due to economic problems in and competition from Chinese hat producers. The rarest and most expensive Panama hats can have as many as 1600–2500 weaves per square inch. These hats are known as Montecristis, after the town of Montecristi, where they are produced. The Montecristi Foundation has established a grading system based on a figure called the Montecristi Cuenta, calculated by measuring the horizontal and vertical rows of weave per inch. A “superfino” Panama hat can, according to popular rumor, hold water, and when rolled for storage, pass through a wedding ring.Īlthough the Panama hat continues to provide a livelihood for thousands of Ecuadorians, fewer than a dozen weavers capable of making the finest “Montecristi superfinos” remain.

Traditionally Panama hats were made from the plaited leaves of the Carludovica palmata, a palm-like plant rather than a true palm. As the name suggests, a pinched front hat features a sharp V-shaped crown with dual pinches at the front. Similar in shape to the trilby (down in the front, curled up in the back), but with proportions more similar to the classic fedora. The Panama hat is a traditional brimmed straw hat of Ecuadorian origin.

Names of cowboy hat shapes