Fashionable accessories

Straw hat - an accessory that is indispensable in summer

Now the choice of straw is so great that it is not difficult to fantasize about a straw hat. But, hat makers can tell us that things are not so simple. You need to know what kind of straw you need to use to make a high-quality and beautiful hat.

The straw hat is known from ancient times, because the straw itself is a very accessible material. Therefore, both the ancient Greeks and Romans wore straw hats, while the Jews' hat was simply an accessory to clothing. Until the 16th century, in France and Germany, the hat was worn mainly by peasants, using it to protect from the sun. And in the 18th century, a straw hat became an exquisite item of dress. Straw hats have long been made in Florence - the famous Italian straw, thin and graceful, from which luxurious hats were made. Since 1714, a farmer and amateur scientist Domenico Michelacci has settled here. It was he who raised such a wheat variety, which had thin, straight stems with a surprisingly beautiful golden color. And besides that, he found that the quality of this straw becomes even better if the wheat is not cut down, but uprooted.

Girls in straw hats photos and videos

Hat production in Florence grew and became famous all over the world. They used Florentine and Leghorn straws. The latter was distinguished by the fact that its fibers are not intertwined, but sewn together at the edge. Thus, the canvas is smooth. The word "Leghorn" itself is borrowed in English from the Italian Livorno - a port on the coast of Tuscany. Manufacturing flourished until the 1920s with tens of thousands of small businesses. A large proportion of exports were for men's hats to the United States. But in 1929, like many other industries, hat factories closed as a result of the crisis. However, those who managed to retrain for the main production of women's hats have survived to this day.

In the days of the crisis, one of the Italian straw sellers Raoul Reali began to seriously look for other sources of raw materials. He started using Chinese straws. However, he also drew attention to the fact that not only new sources are needed, but also completely new materials. This is how the sisal and parisisal hats appeared, and then the Swiss braid. In 1950, Raoul Reali created Pontova viscose, an artificial straw. This latter material began to be used for the manufacture of bags and shoes.

In the 1980s, an even newer material appeared - shinamei. Sisal, parisisal and sinamey are now made from the fibers of the abacus plant, the textile banana (Musa textilis), which grows in the Philippines. There is another variety of synam straws, which is of a higher quality - abacus. These straws are shiny, thin, and dense at the same time. However, with all its merits, synamei is inferior in strength to sisal and parisisal. Parisisal is an elastic, elastic material used to make expensive hats.

There is another popular straw - Panama, which is native to Ecuador. Its advantages are that it bleaches well, dyes, is resistant to creasing, at the same time elastic and cool. This straw appeared in Europe in 1880 and owes its name to the builders of the Panama Canal. The straws are made from tokilla palm fibers.