Cultural and Environmental Sustainability

When you purchase Panama hats from La Rubia Key West, you can be sure that you are helping to perpetuate the centuries-old tradition of hand weaving toquilla straw hats by the indigenous people of Ecuador. 

The eco-fashionable Ecuadorian hats are hand woven from toquilla palm straw which is a rapidly renewable resource that grows in the Manabi region on the coast of Ecuador.  The straw is then taken to the Azuay province around Cuenca, Ecuador’s third largest city, to be woven and finished into the chic headwear by skilled artisans.

We have established relationships with weaving associations and fabricas that operate on fair trade principals making the hats and their production both socially and environmentally sustainable.