Panama hats look great with your Guayabera shirt. I recently took a tour (August 2017) of the MILANO hat factory in GARLAND, Texas where the BILTMORE line of Panama Hats are finished up. As you may or may not know many USA companies buy the unfinished blank hats from suppliers in Ecuquador which is where the hats are woven. The blanks are shpped to the USA for finish out.

The process has many steps. First you select the quality and color of the woven hat you want to finish out. Here is a look at what the unfinished hat from Ecuadaor looks like. First photo is the top side. The second photo is the bottom side.

The hats are then sent to a press that shapes the crown and the rough outline of the brim.

The first photo is of the press. Note the steel or cast iron form that is used the the shape of the crown. The second photo shows the hat shaped but without the brim being trimmed. Sorry about the sideways photo, I can't figure out how to straighten it out.

The hat brim is then trimmed to the size desired. Here's a photo of a completed trim.

The next step is to treat the hat with a sealant. I don't think that they do this in Ecquador, or if they do there is only a small amount added to the hat. At Milano they use a special lacquor to seal the hat up. This stiffens up the fibers and offers some sort of water repelency that a natural Panama will not have. Some people like this. Some don't. But if you wear an untreated Panama and you are exposed to heavy rain the hat may be in trouble. Anyway Milano treats all of their Panama hats.

Here's a photo of the treating room (sorry they were not doing any Panama style hats when I was there but you get the idea as the process is the same) and then a photo of the drying room

Once dried, the hats are sent to the final assembly where sweat bands are added, Hat bands are added, size and any other finish out work is done. Here are some Panama hats waiting for final assembly

Then here are some non-Panama hats with sweat bands being added. They were not working on any at the time I went througn, but you get the idea.

I have many more photos, including a complete set of finish out for Wool hats. They were working on far more of them  in August, as the fall selling season was coming up

This was quite a tour. Thank you again to MILANO Hats which include: Larry Mahan, Justin, and the Biltmore line.