Pile Montecristi Panamá Hat Optimo HandWoven by Domingo Carranza Hats

The pile grade has been woven by hand for 10 weeks,This is my best selling hat in Europe since the summer of 2019, while remaining a wonderful author’s hat, unique and exclusive. A customizable hat with a high level of quality. The Pile Montecristi Panama Hat Optimo.

The Pile Montecristi Panama Hat Optimo model. It is for me one of the most beautiful hats that exist, is superb, elegant, very useful to protect from the sun. A Pile Montecristi Panama Hat Optimo does not leave anyone indifferent, everyone will turn to observe who wears this precious hat. I think it is simply sublime, when worn by a man or woman, it is surely a perfect choice for any event.

Pile Montecristi Panama Hat Optimo

The hats woven by hand in the Pile commune by the Carranza family are fully adapted to current fashion trends. It is not uncommon to see the Pile Montecristi Panama Hat Optimo model in places as diverse as the polo fields in Sotogrande in Cádiz or in the city-state of Singapore. It is a current hat, perfectly usable by women or men and with a great personality. Without a doubt, it is a perfect hat for lovers of authentic fine Montecristis.

About Domingo Carranza Hats

Domingo, as I call him, is in my opinion and many recognized experts on the subject, one of the most extraordinary artisans of fine toquilla straw hats I have ever known. He was born on December 20th, 1969 in the commune of Pile, Canton of Montecristi. Son of Aura Margarita and Jorge Ignacio, he is the eldest of twelve siblings.

The craftsman’s childhood – Domingo Carranza Hats the origins

Since he was 7 years old, his parents and his grandmother Ana María, taught him the art of weaving toquilla straw. Records of this activity of the Carranza Alarcón family have been kept since 1878, being Domingo the sixth generation of artisan weavers in the family.

Weaving was, and still is, one more of the routines of the inhabitants of the province of Manabí on the coast of the country. Hats were woven for use in the field, for cowboys and muleteers who, with their reams of mules loaded with merchandise, supplied the markets of the provinces. They toured the area habitually and they knew the great quality of the hats of this commune.

Thanks to them it was possible to commercialize part of the incipient production.

At first, the child’s small fingers were trained with thick straws, which became mats. Gradually, the result of hours and hours lying on the weaving bench became finer and more delicate, in the most uncomfortable position that a layman could imagine.

The first hat that passed family scrutiny and quality control to be marketed is still engraved in the mind of that 9-year-old. Proudly, he gave the 90 sucres he received for that job to his mother to make the weekly family market. Since then, his skillful hands have not stopped weaving for a single day, each time with greater skill and talent.

The Carranza’s family

He met Doña Mary more than two decades ago, a woman who, like him, comes from a family of artisans. Together they have formed a beautiful family of 5 children and three grandchildren.

The Pile Montecristi Panama hat Optimo