A $250 Straw Hat Is the Choicest Sunblock Money Can Buy

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- There’s no such thing as a neutral hat, or so the saying goes, and never are the sartorial stakes higher than in summer. Hot days demand a topper that blocks the sun without locking in the temperature. Enter Janessa Leoné, an English major-turned-designer whose eponymous Los Angeles-based brand sells straw fedoras, boaters, and more that are handwoven in the U.S. Her $250 Eloise hat is wide enough at the brim to offer shade—or privacy, for the chic introvert—but light enough to give it a breathability normally achieved by mesh alone.

The Competition

• With prices starting at $49, Wyeth, also based in L.A., has a wide variety of beach hats and crushable derbies with sweet details like raffia crochet strips and grosgrain ribbons.

• The granddaddy for aficionados is Italian brand Borsalino, which has made impeccable caps since 1857, and whose team includes a former Gucci CEO. Options include travel-friendly woven hemp sombreros with a brim wide enough to cover your shoulders ($425) and asymmetrical fedoras in turquoise ($395).

• An advanced move in hat circles is to wear New York-based NTTE, which offers one-of-a-kind, deconstructed straw and leather cowboy hats and other vintage numbers in its Boho Rock line. Prices hover around $500.

The Case

Leoné’s pieces are fabricated out of straw sourced from Latin America and woven by a single artisan. It’s a process that takes more than eight hours but yields high-quality construction intended to last many seasons. The classical shapes and minimal design accents, such as the elegant black stripes on the Eloise, make a simple, bold statement—whether in Miami or the Mediterranean. $250; janessaleone.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Rovzar at crovzar@bloomberg.net, James Gaddy

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