They seek to preserve and finance the finest and most expensive hats in the world that are made in Ecuador

The French Embassy in Ecuador will finance a project to preserve the toquilla straw hat. This traditional Ecuadorian accessory was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012. For conservation, France will invest USD 375,000.

The initiative “Weaving sustainable development in Pile, Manabí” seeks to safeguard the traditional way of manufacturing the hat and contribute to the sustainable development of the artisans of Manabí, where the accessory originates, as reported by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage of Ecuador.

At an event attended by the Minister of Culture of Ecuador, María Elena Machuca, the French Ambassador to Ecuador, Frédéric Desagneaux, the representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Ecuador, Julio Carranza, and the director of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Catalina Tello, the project was launched at the Pile Artisan Training Center, located in the Montecristi canton, in the province of Manabí, almost 400 kilometers from Quito.

The community of Pile is the guardian of the ancestral knowledge of the weaving of the toquilla straw hat and, in addition, they are the authors of the functionality of the production chain, according to Minister Machuca. For Ambassador Desagneaux, however, the preservation of this intangible heritage represents an opportunity that supports the country's development. The representative of UNESCO in Ecuador indicated at the event that “it is our responsibility to accompany these processes and it is your virtue as a community to ensure that, even under difficult conditions, this tradition does not disappear”.

Toquilla straw is created from the fibers of a palm tree that grows on the Ecuadorian coast. Toquillales are grown by farmers in that region. After harvesting, the fiber is separated from the green bark of the palm.

With these fibers, very thin hats are woven, which can be sold at prices that reach USD 2,000. To make a single hat of this kind, craftsmen weave for eight months. In the community of Pile, extra-thin hats are made, whose quality is conditioned by the climatic conditions of the place and an exact number of points for each row. There are also toquilla straw hats whose production takes one day and their price is USD 15.

Toquilla straw is a stemless palm with fan-shaped leaves that sprout from the ground, each with broad leaves that reach up to 2 and 3 meters long. Twelve buds are needed for a good hat, ten for a thick or regular hat, eight or nine for open hats, which are the fastest and most economical. To make an elegant straw hat toquilla at least 25 steps are required.

The Ecuadorian hat that is confused as Panamanian

The toquilla straw hat is also known as “Panama hats”. Pile, the community that manufactures the finest section of these hats, has barely a thousand inhabitants who have combined the techniques and knowledge of the social dynamics that include the tradition of growing and producing the toquillales that make the hat.

The artisans of Pile have made hats so fine that their prices have reached five figures. For example, actor Charlie Sheen purchased a toquilla straw hat valued at $25,000. The hat was woven by Simon Espinel and his story was portrayed in several national and international media.

Due to the technique of weaving and the quality of this, toquilla straw hats have been called the finest and most expensive in the world.

Toquilla straw hats are exported from Ecuador to the United States, European and Asian countries, and Australia. Since they were declared an Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2012, their export levels have increased.

According to the Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador, in 1849 the hats of Montecristi, Jipijapa and Cuenca were already sold abroad, mainly in Panama. According to the State portfolio, several leaders and personalities have worn a straw hat, although the credit of Ecuadorian artisans has been taken by Panama. “The elegance and quality of the hat has won the taste and preference of many personalities, such as: Ernest Hemmingway, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Paul Newman among others,” reads in a publication of the institution.

For example, in 1855 a world exhibition prepared by the Frenchman Philippe Raimondi was inaugurated in Paris in 1855, and was attended by Panama with a collection of straw hats, made in Manabite lands. On that occasion, they presented a thin hat to Napoleon III, the emperor of France. The Ministry also explains that in November 1906 the then President of the United States, Teodoro Roosevelt, was photographed wearing a beautiful straw hat while inspecting the construction work of the Panama Canal. These events would have caused the origin of the hats to be confused.

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