Straw hats were once the universal head gear for men and women. Indigenous peoples everywhere still have straw hats and these were probably the beginning of the what later became fashionable. Hunters and gatherers were not into straw hats but rather wore whatever the forest or wildlife provided, perhaps going so far as to weave headwear from leaves or roots of plants. People engaged in agriculture, however, developed the hat from essentially what was leftovers - straw.
Straw hats often had very wide brims, until they became haute couture, to protect the wearer from the sun or rain. Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail solo around the world in 1898, is pictured in a straw hat with a brim reaching almost as wide as his shoulders. Jolly tars waterproofed their straw hats with, you guessed it, tar and spruced them up with ribbons of national or ship's colours. Western ranchers wore straw before they had the means for the Stetson's seen everywhere. Straw is still summer wear around ranches, if it hasn't been replaced by the ubiquitous baseball cap.
I took a magnificent western straw hat to Finland on my first trip back after coming to Canada which caused some problems for the cabin attendants, stewardesses back then, to find a place large enough to put it. Come to think of it, they had a problem with me on the return trip too because I carried cross country skis and poles onto the plane. I wore that straw hat for awhile but sophisticated Europeans weren't really impressed by touristy stuff and indeed in Finland to call someone "a straw hat" is a pejorative for a farmer. "Oh, he is a real straw hat."
At the turn of the last century, straw was high fashion. Men of means, or at least university students, wore the "boater". Especially in the USA, the boater is so symbolic of better bygone times that plastic boaters are available. Women, of course, have always had flamboyant straw hats available, especially in England, with royalty, or during Ascot Racing or polo. Traraa.
I now have several straw hats. Living in cowboy country in the interior of British Columbia, I have of course a straw stetson. I also have a Caribbe Islands hat which I use in the garden. For going to town, I have a small brimmed straw Fedora. When my son Shane was travelling in South America, he sent me a wonderful straw hat - a Panama Fedora with a moderately large brim. This hat arrived rolled up into a 2" x 2" x 12" box made of Balsa wood. The straw was that pliable and it was woven so tightly that it was waterproof. Oddly enough Panama Hats are now made in Bolivia. I still wear it with my "Cerveza" shirt at summer parties. Shades of a Bogart movie.
Straw, to a certain extent, seems to be making a comeback in hats. With holes in the ozone layer and the evils of too much sun, even young men are wearing straw hats to save themselves from skin cancer. Women are wearing wide brimmed hats for the same reason. I don't think that we will ever get the hat industry that we had at the turn of the 1900s, when no one ventured out of doors without a hat but it is nice to see that straw has not been forgotten.
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