10 GREAT PANAMA HAT FACTS.

If Goodwood races were a hat it would be a Panama.

Everywhere you look over the next five days the famous design will be sported by anyone who is anyone .. and plenty who are not! So here are 10 things you might like to know about Panama hats .. 1. The Panama hat doesn't originate from Panama at all, it comes from Ecuador. The hats are made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant, grown on huge plantations in western Ecuador.

2. It's called a Panama because, like many South American goods made in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the hats were sent to Panama for shipping to the rest of the world. Soon, Panama became synonymous with the hat.

3. They are also known as a Jipijapa, after a hat-making centre in Ecuador.

4. The test of a high class Panama hat is the quality of the weave. The way to test that quality is to count the number of weaves per square inch. The most expensive could have up to 2,000, fewer than 100 would be considered fairly low quality.

5. Folk-law states that the best Panama hats can be folded for storage and also hold water. 6. Sales of the Panama hat really took off after American president Theodore Roosevelt wore one on a visit to the Panama Canal construction site in 1906. 7. The famous American hat-makers Stetson do a line of Panamas. 8. The hat-making industry in Ecuador is struggling due to competition from paper-based imitations made in China. 9. The seventh Doctor Who, played by Sylvester McCoy, was a big Panama hat fan.

10. There are three main styles of Panama - the Optimo, the Fedora and the Monte Carlo. All three have featured in films.

Sydney Greenstreet wore an Optimo in Casablanca, Anthony Hopkins a Fedora in Hannibal, and Clark Gable a Monte Carlo in Gone With The Wind.

CAPTION(S):

MONTE Gable OPTIMO Greenstreet FEDORA Anthony Hopkins at Hannibal