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.
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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.
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Why the Panama Is the Best Summer Hat — and Why Most of Them Break
Panama Hats · The Guide
Why the Panama Is the Best Summer Hat — and Why Most of Them Break
A real Panama is the finest summer hat on earth. So why do most fall apart within a season? The honest answer, from the maker who fixed it.
By Oska, founder of Truffaux · International Milliner of the Year · 9 min read
The real thing, worn in the world — sun, movement, a hat made to last.
A genuine Panama is the best summer hat in the world. Nothing else breathes like it, keeps you as cool, or looks as good doing it. And yet most Panamas people buy are bent out of shape or broken within a season. Both of those things are true at once — and the reason is the same: almost nobody makes them properly anymore.
Here’s the honest story of the world’s greatest hat: why it’s worth it, why so many fail, and how to get one that lasts a lifetime.
OneWhy is a Panama the best summer hat?
Because it doesn’t just shade your head — it cools it. Panama straw absorbs moisture and wicks your sweat away; then the sun and wind evaporate it off the weave, and that evaporation carries the heat with it. Real cooling, not just shade — which is why it beats every other hat in the heat.
It breathes like linen — light, open, alive in the heat — and no felt, no fabric, no paper hat comes close. It never holds a smell. It looks superb. And it feels like something the first time you put it on.
A felt or paper hat traps heat against your head. Panama straw does the opposite: it moves moisture out and lets sun and wind pull the warmth away with it. The hat works with the heat instead of fighting it.
TwoLeather, not vinyl — the moment you want a real one
Most people arrive at a Panama. You wear the cheap straw hats for years, try all of them, and one day you decide you want a proper one — something you love, that looks right and feels right and lasts.
It’s the same moment as leather shoes. You wear vinyl your whole life, and then it dawns on you: leather breathes, leather lasts, leather feels good and looks great. A real Panama is the leather. The paper-and-plastic “straw” hats sold everywhere are the vinyl.
ThreeWhy are Panama hats so expensive?
Because they’re woven entirely by hand. Not punched out of a factory in China — woven, strand by strand, the way things have been made for generations.
A single Panama passes through around fifteen pairs of hands. Someone harvests the toquilla straw from the forest. The weavers — the real artists — turn it into cloth. Then the finishers tidy every imperfection, the blockers shape it, others weave the brim’s edge and set the band. It’s an ancient craft, still alive in Ecuador, passed down generation after generation, and in 2012 UNESCO listed the weaving as part of humanity’s cultural heritage.
Here’s the part that should stop you: for a hundred years, factories in China and America have tried to machine-make a Panama, and every one has failed. The straw is too alive, too variable — only the human hand and eye can read it and weave it. The simplest Panama takes a full day at the loom; the finest take many months. A factory straw hat takes ten minutes.
When you buy one, you’re not buying a product. You’re buying one of the last genuinely handmade things left in the world — the only handmade thing most people will ever own. Every hat is different, the way we’re all different.
FourSo why do they break?
Almost never because of the straw. It breaks because of bad hatmaking — and a quiet con.
Grade zero
Woven loose and soft. Feels wonderful in your hand in the shop — and falls apart within six months. The straw that seduces you is the straw that fails you.
Grade three+
Tightly, evenly woven. Less seductive in the hand, far stronger in the world. The Truffaux floor — never below it.
Grading is no help, either: there’s no consistent standard anywhere in the world, so a hat sold as a high grade can still be a poorly woven hat that simply measures well.
Then there are the “packable” travel Panamas that survive a suitcase — because they aren’t real Panama at all. They’re paper and polyester, which is exactly why they don’t breathe, don’t cool, and sit dead on your head. And most of the rest are just badly engineered: crowns too tall, shapes that don’t suit a face, brims that won’t hold their line. Beautiful straw, ruined by bad making.
FiveHow do you get a Panama that lasts?
You get the real thing, made properly. That’s the entire reason Truffaux exists.
Years ago, our founder Oska went to Ecuador to start a design company, and looked at the home of the world’s greatest hat — and found them all badly made. Poorly cut, poorly shaped, too tall, brims that wouldn’t hold. Beautiful straw, let down at every turn. So he set out to finish the job the tradition never had: he engineered the hats to be stable, chose reliable weaves instead of the seductive-but-doomed ones everyone else ships, fixed the proportions so they actually suit a head, and built in a heat-set Brimlock wire so the brim never goes wonky, no matter what.
He went on to build a dedicated Panama hat house with boutiques across four continents, and was named International Milliner of the Year. Today the hats are made in the Truffaux atelier in Olinda, in the hills above Melbourne.
SixThe one thing no other shop can offer
There’s a difference only one hatmaker in the world can give you: Oska designed every single Truffaux hat, and has personally fitted hundreds of thousands of Panamas onto real heads. He isn’t an assistant selling stock he didn’t make. He knows how each hat behaves — which will shrink, which curves nicely, which won’t suit a particular face on its own.
So you don’t have to gamble on a hat you can’t try on. Send a photo, and the man who made the hat tells you which one is right, and what size. That’s the difference between buying a hat online and being fitted by its maker. (See which hat will suit you, and how to find your size.)
A short resilience test — squish it, sit on it, roll it, then watch the crown spring back and the brim settle straight.
SevenAnd travelling with one?
The honest truth about rollable Panamas: they go wonky and, in time, they crack — and the only one that truly folds is the old Optimo, which most people won’t actually wear. So the answer for travel isn’t a hat that folds. It’s a hat that can’t break.
The Truffaux Traveller doesn’t fold — it just survives. Squish it in your bag and it comes back; the Brimlock wire keeps the brim’s line; it travels the world and returns looking the same, maybe a little dirtier. Read more on whether you can roll a Panama, and how to pack a hat for travel.
Questions people ask
Why is a Panama the best summer hat?
Why are Panama hats so expensive?
Why do Panama hats break so easily?
Are cheap packable Panama hats real?
How do I choose a Panama hat that suits me?
How long does a good Panama hat last?
Oska Truffaux
Founder & Milliner · Truffaux
Oska Truffaux designed every Truffaux hat and has fitted more than 150,000 Panamas by hand. From 2007 he opened 32 stores across 29 countries before coming home to the atelier in Olinda, in the hills outside Melbourne. He was named International Milliner of the Year.
Explore the whole world of Panama hats
Why it’s the best
Why they cost more
The real thing vs fakes
Choosing & fitting
Caring for it
Travel & wearing it
Meet the Traveller
The real thing, made to survive the trip. Hand-woven, Brimlock-wired, and fitted to you by the maker.
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