The San Francisco call., 1906-07-29
G1rd0

THE fad for wearing Porto Rican
panama hats at Palm Beach,
which is known to be the dressi-
est resort in the world. far exceeding
Newport. Monte Carlo and the Riviera
In this respect is responsible for the
popularity of the panama, Leghorn and
Porto Rican hat this spring. These
three straws are very similar in weave
and tint, and panamas and Porto Ricans
never wear out and may be reblocked
and shaped in new styles every year
OF all the straws for fashionable head
wear this season these will be the
smartest.
One of the principal reasons why
fashionable women like the hats Of
Porto Rico panama is because each is
woven by native and has a slight dis
similarity in its make, which gives il
individuality. There are no factory
made Porto Rican hats. Inc natives
gather and bleach the straw themselves
and weave the hats, each with its hall
mark of individuality upon it, and
every hat is shaped in a different man
ner. so that no two are alike. They are
trimmed simply, as a rule, with soft
trimmings of chiffon, null and the like,
with feathers and wings in some and
loops and knots of ribbon effectively
disposed upon others. There is about
them an air of ditinction, which ac-
counts for their smartness, and they
adapt themselves to so many different
sorts of costumes, from the suit of
wool to that of pongee or lingerie.
So far the Porto Rican hat has not
been trimmed to wear with very elabO-
rate state gowns. but there seems no
reason why it should not be as we'll as
its panama sister and Leghorn cousin
One thing the American women like
to think of when they wear these hats
is that they are helping Porto Rican
men and women to a better livelihood
for before the vogue for these hats
spread they only earned from to 10
cents day and lived in way that we
would call starvation. They made these
beautiful hats for their own use, and
when they began to sell them did not
attempt to make anything like their
value in the sale.
Now, thanks to a whim of fashion.
large industry has sprung up among
reople in great need of profitable
werk, and of the three fashionable
straws mentioned Ii would seem only
fair that American women selected that
panama weave woven by poor little
dependency OF the United States
One of the most fetching features
of the Porto Rican hat is its pliability
1t may be dented into all manner of
shapes to accommodate itself to the
features of the wearer IT lends itself
to bending and crushing without in
jury TO the straw and, as a native says
1t may be reblocked into a different
form whenever one pleases. since that
weave of hat practically never wears
out.
Porto Rican hats are never exactly
the same weave nor the same tint
The color is much the came. however
since 1t is cured in the same manner
but each man and woman who weaves
hat has a certain method that is in
divi6ual and distinctive and that makes
1t impossible for another person TO
wear hat woven in precisely the same
way.
The coloring is always along the
line of golden brown and dead leaf
tints in soft shades. with sometimes
an old gold hue in the material The
hats are made from fine strips of
certain kind of palm and cured by ex-
posufe to sun and dew. so far as a
visitor can learn. The beautiful soft
coioring Is natures own and is much
more Becoming than hats Of pure white
ano most other colors ever are. These
neutral tints. too, lend themselves ad-
mirably TO wings and ribbons of every
color, particularly to light blues. black
and duh yellows. In broader shapes
the hats may be dented and trimmed
elaborately for wear with some smart
gown, but usually they are worn with
simple white and outdoor froeks.
The straw itself is so pretty that II
often appears with merely few loops
of ribbon or scarf OF mousseiine