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The Hats All Montecristi hats have hand-cut, hand-sewn USA tanned leather sweatbands and hand-sewn grosgrain ribbon. If you need a long brim or high crown, simply leave a note at checkout and I'll follow up with you on the price, generally $20.00 per additional cm (weaving around the end of the hat takes a long, long time!). Average brims are in the range of 2 3/4 to 3 inches this year. Please leave a note if you want a specific brim length. We'll guarantee to be within a 1/4 inch. These are made a world away in another culture, so we ask for the 1/4 inch leeway. Brim lengths measured from the front of hat.

Weave and Quality Choices

All of our high-end finos come from the barrio of Pile, where the best weavers in the world live. We do offer other hats from both Pile and the other barrios. A word on the Cuenta or Weave Count of the hat. Each hat is unique, but we aim for the following Cuentas, or Weave Counts, on our hats. The cuenta is found by counting one linear inch of the tejido (weave) and squaring it. As you've seen on other sites, it is not foolproof, but it is much more accurate than counting vueltas (the rings inside the crown of the hat). If we list a weave count of 900, then the linear tejido count of one inch would be about 30. Weave counts are estimated, as we'll pick out the best looking hat.

A comparison of weaves-per-square-inch. The left is about 400 wpsi and the right is well over 1000. For comparison purposes only.

Espinales 2000 Fino: 2000 cuenta (weave count)$1600.00  — Commissioned or bought personally for you from one of the best weaving families in Pile! SORRY! None of the hats are woven by Simon Espinal, his servitude is indentured and we don't treat people that way.

Espinales 1600 Fino: 1600 cuenta $873.00  — Commissioned or bought personally for you from one of the best weaving families in Pile! SORRY! None of the hats are woven by Simon Espinal.

Espinales 1400 Fino: 1400 cuenta $788.00  — Commissioned or bought personally for you from one of the best weaving families in Pile! SORRY! None of the hats are woven by Simon Espinal.

EspiFino: 1200 cuenta $680  — Commissioned or bought personally for you from one of the best weaving families in Pile! SORRY! None of the hats are woven by Simon Espinal.

AlaFino: 900 cuenta $550.  — This is called "Special Reserve" by some. It's fifth down the quality line for us.

Fino Fino: 800 cuenta $513  — Commissioned or bought from one of the best weaving families in Pile or Pampas.

Super Fino: 650 cuenta $339  — Commissioned or bought from one of the best weaving families in Montecristi.

Extra Fino: 500 cuenta $281  — Commissioned or bought from one of the best weaving families in Montecristi. This is called Fino Fino by our competition.

Fino: 300 cuenta $181  — Commissioned or bought from one of the best weaving families in Montecristi. This is called Super Fino or Ultra Fino by our competition.

Medio Fino: 200 cuenta $135  — Bought at market directly. This is called Fino by our competition

Cuarto Fino: 150 cuenta $85  — Bought from one of the pre-teen or teenage weavers, or weekend weavers in Montecristi. We need to keep them weaving! This is called Sub Fino by our competition.

Three Choices for Blocking

You can choose to have your hat blocked in the USA Ecuador by hand in Montecristi Ecuador by professionals on fine antique equipment by a family of artesanos. Either choose from the menu at the top of the page or click the links here to explore your options.

© 2009; Panama Hatworks of Montecristi, www.panamas.biz