Hats off to Harry Potter

Warner Bros. scoured London to find hats which were appropriate for the visiting dignitaries to the Quidditch World Cup in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. They finally came across my website at www.panamas.co.uk and found exactly the styles they required.

I received a letter from the Wardrobe Department at Warner Bros. thanking her for the panamas and saying how impressed they were by the quality of the hats and the ethics behind Pachacuti, adding that they would continue to recommend my hats to other potential clients. They also sent a signed photograph of the cast for my daughter, Sienna.

I work with the only women’s panama co-operative in Ecuador, supporting 400 hat weavers. Panama hats traditionally pass through a chain of middlemen but with a Pachacuti panama the women undertake the entire process from weaving to finishing. Not only do the weavers receive good remuneration for their skills, but profits are used for medical expenses, community development and pensions for elderly weavers.

Just as the commodities which were exploited by colonists to the third world are now readily available as fair trade products - tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar - so one of the symbols of colonial rule, the ubiquitous panama hat, is starting a new life as a product which is created without the exploitation of the workers.