No collection of
men's dress hats is complete without some incredible
Panama hats like
The Vented Montecristi. From
Borsalino, this exceptional men's dress hat is hand woven by artisans in Ecuador, then shipped to Italy to be shaped and finished. Borsalino has three new hats of note this season:
The Mazzini is an absolutely stunning and exceptionally lightweight open weave abaca braid
fedora with a stingy snap brim. The natural tones are pleasing and there's a blush of color in the grosgrain trim.
The Raffia Stingy Brim, a very
stingy brim hat (with a 1 1/2 inch sisal brim) is made of a fine mesh covered raffia body, and then there's
The Fantasy Band, which is a classic
Panama hat with a "fantasy" grosgrain band, with a dark tinged edge on the natural colored band. Simply outstanding.
In addition to Borsalino's other dress Panama hats, like
The Panama Fino,
The Panama Turndown and
The Stingy Brim Panama,
Brent Black offers hand-blocked Panama hats such as a
Montecristi
pork pie hat, with its perfect two-inch brim, plus a classic
men's fedora (aptly named
The Classic) with a teardrop island in the crown of the hat and straw so finely woven it feels like linen.
There's new line this season of Mr. Kim fedoras from New York's Eugenia Kim.
The Mr. Kim Camel Craig, in fact, is one of my top Spring/Summer 2012 picks. It's a beautiful and unlined
toyo fedora that features an ikat triple pleated band with vintage cat pin, and a very stingy 1 and 1/4 inch upturned brim. That's not to say that
The Mr. Kim Charcoal Craig, a two-tone
fedora with leather belting and antique brass buckle trim, doesn't excite my hat rack or that I don't fervently admire the vintage ribbon with unique cat pin and that narrow upturned
stingy brim on
The Mr. Kim Brown Craig fedora. Heaven forbid! In fact,
The Mr. Kim Camel Curt, with its soft toyo body in black smartly highlighted by a black and gold fine pinstripe band (with bow), is right up there in my favorite
dress hats selection as well.
Another dress hat to admire comes your way courtesy of Carlos Santana.
The Santana Panama Special is a magnificent Santana
Panama hat made exclusively for Hartford York, with a finely woven vented body and bound edge two-inch brim. Look for the Santana Lion pin on the three pleat leather and grosgrain ribbon trim. Both
Christys' London and Biltmore of Canada offer panama dress hats sure to please the most demanding gentleman as well:
The Elegante is pure Panama perfection from Christys' in a Grade 20 linen-like straw and the fedora from
Biltmore is a Montecristi Panama hat guaranteed to turn heads. As with the Montecristi pork pie from Biltmore, it is as nice a
men's dress hat as we have to offer.