How the Panama, a hat born in the fields of South America, became the VIPstand of the chic Roland Garros!
Panama Roland Garros: A chic audience
Roland Garros is the setting for a world of glamour – as popular as the clay courts, the stands are the subject of special attention from photographers from around the world. It must be said that stars and other personalities display more than a budding love. And on their heads, Panama has always become iconic. Before landing on the bleachers of the most chic sporting event in the galaxy, Panama is already the object of ceramics dating back to 4,000 B.C. In Ecuador, its country of origin, this braided straw hat is an integral part of the traditional costume. The room is mainly used for field work.
When the Spanish landed on the Amerindian side, they were not mistaken. In the 16th century, fascinated by such fine weaving, they are convinced that these are pieces made from bat wings! In fact, the natives were able to develop a plant fibre called ‘Pajamocora’, which comes from a palm tree that only grows in Ecuador. With great skill in the work of this fiber, the natives of the region have managed to compose a piece of exceptional whiteness. Its finesse and flexibility also make panama a hat capable of being rolled, folded, stored without ever damaging its appeal. By 1850, more than 200,000 panamas were exported to the United States each year. Practical, the hat seduced Europeans who discovered it in 1855, on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition in Paris…

1906, while visiting the construction sites of the Panama Canal, President Roosevelt wears it to adopt the dress code of the Ecuadorian workers – it does not take more to ennoble it. Since then, it has protected from the sun the presidents and crowned heads of the world, the greatest Hollywood actors and actresses like Humphrey Bogart or Sean Connery. . And very often, it happens at Roland Garros.
Panama Roland Garros: The Ideal Headgear.

Sober, elegant and light, it has become an indispensable part of the tournament – a tournament where tennis is practised with chic and decomplexion! Leonardo DiCaprio, Pippa Middleton, Elsa Zylberstein, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Grant and Jean Paul Belmondo; the biggest matches of the Parisian tournament have long been under the watchful eye of the stars…
And to read the interview of Sarah Pitkowski by Icon-Icon, the former world tennis player, today at the head of the communication of the FFT, is formal: Panama is the iconic element of the Roland Garros style!
“We can note that the second week of the tournament, the audience gets more elegant. Paris is known for this French touch» assures Edouard Bardon, in charge of the Roland-Garros brand. A chic-discreet perfectly embodied in panama. An iconic piece of the French tournament, which, this year more than ever, ensures continuity even as the physics of the stadium, is in full upheaval.
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