When one thinks of a straw hat one usually thinks of some cheap straw hat found in shops, but this is not the type of hat l am talking about. I am talking about something from a different world that few people know about; and even if they do know about them they probably wouldn't know anyone who would be able to get one. Even if they could get one of these special hats, few would dare to pay the massive dollars required for purchasing one of these masterpieces. Yes, it is the montescristi, and not just any montescristi sold online for $1,000 or under; I am talking about the real deal montecristi made by one of the last few remaining master hat weavers in the world today. The weaving and stitches per inch are so fine and perfectly even that the straw hats looks like a luxurious cloth with a refinement and elegance no other hat has. When you've seen it, you know what l am talking about, and it is something you can't really imagine until you have seen it in person. I am one of the rare lucky few to have seen the top works by one of the top four Montecristi masters Don Rosendo, and l am one of the lucky few to have owned one of the better Montecristi by the late master.
Here is one of the late [Don] Rosendo Delgado's finest masterpieces. I was lucky enough to see this before it gets put in a museum. Notice the fine weave and how even the weave it looks, and notice how it looks like a luxurious cloth. The edge of the hat is completed using a special weaving process where the straw is woven back into the hat; it is a specialist skill only a few in the world know how to do.
Brent Black (salesman of the most elite montecristi hats) with the legendary [Don] Rosendo Delgado
As I understand, these days there are only three of the remaining master weavers of the Montecristi. Why are there so few? Because the work is backbreaking and intense, and often for little pay, and few people want to do it anymore. The only way to make these panama hats is to bend over like in the photo, and they can only be made by hand. This is not a glamorous or easy job.
Most of the weavers make very little money, and the only way to get the top weavers making the best ones is to pay them a lot of money. As a consequence some straw hats (actually they are made from toquilla palm) sell for $25,000, others sell for $40,000, and recently one is for sale for $50,000 USD. Is it worth it? It depends. If you want perhaps the most labour intensive artisanal clothing product made in the world today (much more labour intensive than couture pieces created by the top French fashion houses), then it is worth it. Just think of it like this....these top montecristi straw hats can take 4 hours per day that requires the utmost intense concentration, and this goes on everyday for 8 months or more for the very best ones. In other words, these hats can take almost 1,000 hours to make for the best of the best or 500 hours for a straw hat woven by one of the masters like mine did.
Here is my montecristi below made by [Don] Rosendo Delgado. Very few shops in the world stock this type of quality because there is very little market for them. Especially in Australia there is not the appreciation for this type of craftsmanship, so no retailers would dare to stock them. While mine is not the best of the best, it is one of the better ones in the world, and one made by the late master.
You won't see many hats like this today. These days people have lost the passion to make them. Instead of fine works of art that take 500 hours or more, most people weave these straw hats in 2 hours and create many cheap tourist versions. The old guard are getting older and these hats are going to become increasingly rare. It is truly a skill of a bygone age almost lost in modern times.
