Bought the New Yorker 12 years ago - have worn it death. Spoke to Oska and decided on the Fino New Yorker - it is the most gorgeous hat ever! Thanks
Delivered as promised. Fits perfectly. Great communication as well.
I had been doing a lot of research to find this exact hat. The Australian is not your traditional Panama hat, However, it is a true Ecuadorian hand made hat, the style fits me well, and it’s exactly what I was looking for.
I contacted Truffaux with questions and the responses were such that I felt I couldn’t go wrong ordering from this business. They pride themselves in making sure you get the correct fit, tell you what to expect, and make sure your hat stays looking good for a long time.
The box this hat was sent in was sturdy and protected it well, however, because the brim of the hat is arched, the way it laid in the box it flattened the brim and messed up the overall appearance. I believe it will straighten out but I’ll need to work with it to make sure of that.
I would have loved to have this hat in a finer weave but Truffaux assured me this weave is best for this hat.
I’m looking for to wearing this hat for a long time.
Top quality hat and very comfortable to wear! Super quick delivery half way across the world.
The hat is beautiful; well made, well styled, looks great on me. I'm very happy that I found Truffaux.
Oska was super helpful, too, in ensuring that I received the hat in good nick. I live in rural Mexico and some standard shipping methods don't work for me. After explaining this to Oska, he was more than helpful, working with me to find a method that ensured I received the parcel. Do take Oska's sizing advice. While his recommendation was for a size larger than what I normally would wear, I didn't regret taking the advice. The hat fits really well. Thanks again to Oska for your help.
Many thanks to Oska.
Oska was great at suggesting hats for me from photos I sent and ultimately I chose the Golden Traveller. More emails went back and forth over sizing and then a very well packed hat travelled halfway round the world to me, arriving completely unscathed by it's trip. I'm delighted with it and with the service I received from Truffaux and would recommend them to anyone looking for a new hat.
It is really a great hat. After consulting Oska what might fit me well, I decided to go along with his recommendation and it does fit perfectly. Just a handsome great hat. Thanks alot Oska.
The New Yorker is a gorgeous and fantastic hat, don't hesitate! It makes you feel fabulous but its not too posh. It cools your head down, is very confortable to wear, the straw absorbs the sweat. Perfect!
The great interaction with Oksa helped the decission, shipping (around the world) was no problem, the hat arrived in perfect condition. I am very happy!
Handsome hat in just the right size and light as a feather. It arrived halfway across the globe quickly and well packed. Good experience all around.
I got the best Panama hat I have ever had from Truffaux. It exceeds my high expectations. And that is not the only reason I am writing this review. I am pretty fussy, and what I truly appreciated was Oska Truffaux's obvious personal concern that it be the right hat in the right size for me. I picked Truffaux because their web site is impressive about hat making and sizing. And I was right!!
Oksa was very helpful in answering my questions about selecting a panama and sizing. I went with the Cuban at his recommendation and man, it is an amazing hat! It suits my head shape perfectly, I've received lots of compliments on it, but most importantly, it is very light and cools my head astonishingly well. Just the slightest breeze and I've got instant a/c. Thanks Oksa!
I love a panama hat, and have many I rotate through, but don't like travelling with them because they get bent out of shape so easily.
A YouTube search on how to travel with hats led me to Oska's shop and my purchase of The Traveller, which arrived just in time for a 2 week trip to Japan and France.
The hat looks great, fits well (thanks to Oska's email assistance) and handles the rigours of travel better than I thought it would, springing back to shape from all manner of mis-treatment.
Great value for the price, I thoroughly recommend Oska and his hats, especially The Traveller.
The buying process was unbelievable. Placed an order and rapidly received a personal response asking if I had ordered the correct size. Sent in my measurements and it turned out I needed a size larger than what I had ordered. Who knew that hats shrink!
A week or so later the hat was in my hands. Quick considering that it had to make it from Australia to the United States. Tried it on, too big! My wife handed me an envelope which contained foam shims. Three of these and a perfect fit which will allow for shrinkage (hat, not my brain).
Wore it today for the first time other than trying it on. Hardly noticed it was there. Super comfortable. Looks good too!
If you want a piece of garbage with no customer service I guess there is Amazon.
If you want a great hat that will fit, you are in the right place!
Just arrived - absolutely amazing hat! And, I can’t say enough about how helpful Oska was in finding me the right hat, and his customer service is extraordinary. I’ll be buying more.
GET THE RIGHT HAT FIRST TIME
Skip the stress of wondering if it will look great, fit right and arrive safely. With 20 years of global shipping experience, I’ve mastered the art of pairing the perfect style and size, then delivering it to your door in pristine condition.
No one does it better, and tens of thousands of satisfied customers attest to my unmatched personal expertise.
What is a genuine Panama hat?
NAVIGATING THE TRICKY WORLD OF PANAMA HATS
Navigating the world of Panama hats can be tough for a beginner. The Panama is an exquisite artisanal art form with a long and revered heritage - they are frequently copied and faked in substandard form. Any white hat can be called a Panama, and it is downright deceptive marketing. I love the Ecuadorians, they are beautiful people with generous hearts, and they cannot afford to mount international legal battles to stop the trickery, so it goes on. The only way to work it out is to look into the details.
1. FAKE STRAW - 'artificial straw', polypropylene, 'paper straw', Toyo, Shantung. These are the most prevalent, and are machine-made across Asia in vast numbers, very cheaply. All these hats breath terribly, and will cause your head to smell, sweat and are damn uncomfortable. The paper hats can sweat themselves apart. Often they coat the paper in plastic to make them last longer, and again you have a plastic bag on your head - a terrible idea in hot weather.
When you find the details of the materials used, it becomes clear. If they don't specify you can be sure they are plastic. If the hat costs less than $100, you can be very sure that it is not a Panama.
2. OTHER STRAW HATS - There are weavers making hats in China, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia and even Brazil. Sometimes they will use the same straw as a Panama (Toquilla, Carludovica), but usually, it is an inferior alternative. Their techniques of preparation and weaving are also substandard. The Chinese have an ancient hat-weaving tradition, but the straw they use is coarse, scratchy, easily breaks and dyes poorly. Unless they explicitly state it is "made in Ecuador", then it is not a Panama hat. Retailers will lie about the origin as well, and the only way to tell is the pricing and the shape of the weaving.
All the pictures here are listed online as genuine Panama hats. The best way to tell is if the centre of the crown spirals out like the picture to the left, then it is most likely a Panama. Unfortunately, they will sometimes copy the shape of the Panama weaving to make a high-quality fake. It gets tricky. If you are buying from a retailer that does many different fashion products, it is unlikely to be a Panama.
3. LOW-GRADE PANAMA HATS - This is when it gets even more misleading. When the hats are handwoven in Toquilla straw, they are sorted into grades and priced appropriately. You can buy a Panama in Ecuador for $25, but these hats are not worth owning. They are what they call grade zero; loose, erratic, lumpy and coarse. Woven rapidly, in large numbers by inexperienced weavers. To hide their imperfections, they will bleach the hats heavily, until it is a rubbery luminous mass. Then it is dyed an ivory colour and passed as a bargain to unsuspecting tourists and online buyers. These hats usually have a 'natural edge' where the straw is roughly woven back into itself to finish the hat. They always fall apart, the brim frays and the hat will disintegrate.
Typically these hats are a Brisa weave, which is like a light crosshatch pattern. It is the fastest and cheapest to weave, and also the weakest and poorest quality (although a good quality Brisa is a great work of art). They will crack through the pinch at the front of the hat within weeks. Sometimes manufacturers will glue material into the crown to stop this happening. It is a cheap way of making a cheap weave last a bit longer. Hats are like anything else - you get what you pay for.
4. LOW-END ECUADORIAN DROP SHIPPERS - No doubt you will have come across amazing 'deals' on Montechriti's, finos and cheap Panama hats online. There are no standards for Panama hat quality, so they can say whatever they like and convince you with a lovely picture, that you are getting a bargain. Most of these businesses buy up cheap hats and simply ship them. They don't know how to style them, fit them or even how they will look on your head. If you don't care how it will look on your head, then at least you save some money.
Every hatmaker works to a different price and quality point. We have been fortunate to be able to design beautiful, practical Panama hats that people love to own. They cost a bit more, but for the next ten years your investment always looks good, and you love to wear it. To me, that is what really matters.