Within Ecuador traditional producer groups carefully select the local, sustainable and organic toquilla palm grass grown within a community-owned plantation that encourages biodiversity to then weave the hats. Any fibre not suitable for weaving is then used for roofing on the houses of the coastal regions.

Pachacuti, now a reputable label that shows at London Fashion Week’s estethica, serves and supports the community through providing a Western and mainstream market for the fedora or panama hats, made popular by a celebrity following that includes Naomi Campbell, Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley and Jude Law.

Panama hats have been noted in the history books since 4,000BC and have been an integral part of the quintessentially British summer since they became popular by Royalty in the early 1900s.

Set up by pioneer Carry Somers in 1992, Pachauti means ‘world upside-down’ in the local Quechua language. For them it is about the panama wearer feeling enriched “by seeing a different way of life through the cultures, places and people you encounter” and supporting the heritage and craft that goes into the hat.

Cary Somers explains: “A great deal of expertise is required, not just for weaving but even in the selection and splitting of the fibres.  If any darker or mottled fibres creep into a fine hat, the value will be considerably less.  Our weavers have learnt weaving from childhood and most of them can easily weave a standard grade hat, but there are only a handful of weavers who can make the grade 8 hats and just a few who weave grade 12 and 14, which can take two weeks to make.”

Unlike the majority of mass-produced panama hats that incorporate a lot of chemicals and use middlemen or “perros” (“dogs” in Spanish), Pachacuti guarantees a natural, cooperative approach that guarantees fair wages to the 1200 artisan weavers. The dyes that produce the gorgeous colours are AZO free and support water-recycling. The whole production process also reduces and prevents pollution and emissions,  mapping the journey from the growers to the weavers to the wearer. Aside from the speed of the growing grass,  it is a salute to Slow Life– with even the transportation of the coastal grass taking its time travelling to town by donkey.

Somers adds: “The women typically rise very early, going to milk a cow for instance and prepare food before sending the children off to school.   The main meal is at lunchtime so the women will weave a few hours in the morning, prepare some lunch, eat with the family, then maybe fit in some more weaving on the bus whilst taking some blackberries or guinea pigs to sell in a the nearest town.  Weaving really is a supplementary activity: the women weave as they walk, talk, travel.  Only when weaving the fine hats do the women have to sit in one place to weave, now made easier by the provision of ergonomic benches to one of our weaving cooperatives. The pace of life seems unhurried, but is far from being laid back. “

Pachacuti recently became the first Fair Trade organisation to the pilot for the new World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) certification process, allowing its hats to wear the proud assurance label of  ‘Certified Fair Trade and Sustainable’ which demonstrates social, economic and environmental responsibility through accredited EU auditors. So, unlike most Fair Trade certification that certifies only the commodity, these hats have had the entire supply chain guaranteed.

“Pachacuti provides sustainable livelihoods for the women: work which fits around their agricultural cycle, meaning that they can earn an income working from home between sowing and harvesting their crops. The women live in very remote mountainous communities, coming to the association centre every Sunday to turn in their week’s work. The women earn approximately 50% of their income from agriculture and 50% from weaving.”

There have been fears that as many young people migrate towards urban life in search of opportunities, the art of weaving could be lost, so the cooperative have begun a training scheme for young weavers to keep the tradition alive and has brought new members to the hat-weaving cooperative.