Editor’s Lust List: The Panama Hat

Warm weather is coming and pretty soon sun hats will come out to shade our faces from all that glows. It made its appearance last summer in the Sex and the City: The Movie, Madonna’s brought it back to Malawi while she battles her adoption case and now my desire to have it cannot be quieted: I must have a Panama hat for summer.

Make no mistake: I don’t mean a fedora. A fedora has a tighter brim, cute for those of you who want something jaunty. I’m talking a Panama: a wide brimmed, stolen-from-your-lover’s-closet deal that will quell a bad hair day and add just the right touch of menswear chic to any summer dress.


Since the hat shown in Sex and the City: The Movie is Hermes (and the manufacturer of Madonna’s hat is unknown), I’m going with the labels I love and can acquire. For basic beach, I need a hat that won’t make me cry if it gets crushed, like this cute Urban Outfitters Straw Panama ($38) but for more swank occasions I’m going with Eugenia Kim’s Brooke Panama Hat ($325.)

I doubt I’ll be hiding from the paparazzi but I’m pretty sure I’ll look way more chic in photographs this summer. Grab one of these hats and see what I mean.