Canotier

A boater

The canotier (also known as boat or gondolier) is a straw hat with straight cup, flat top and short, flat and rigid wing, usually adorned with a colored ribbon, or black. History

The canotier was created in 1880. It was typical of the gondoliers of Venice, who used to adorn it with a long ribbon (doppio nastro), to distinguish itself from the naval officers. It is also a symbol of Oxford schoolboys. At the end of the 19th century, the hat became fashionable in France, due to the exaltation of navigation "du canotaje", hence its name. In parallel, Italian immigrants made it fashionable in America, where it reached its peak in the first half of the 20th century.

It is a very elaborate hat, made with straw sennit braided as the Japanese rostik. The three parts of the hat were sewn: cap, cup and wing separately, and then joined with rubber. It used to be adorned with a black or blue ribbon or stripes that often represent a school, a rowing crew or an institution. The machine with which the canotier was sewn was created specifically for this type of hat. In the museum of the straw of Florence, an extraordinary collection of these machines is exhibited.

Used in summer by sailors and athletes, using both women and men, marking a high social level. It was also used by the middle class in their picnics, weekend excursions or more formal events. The people's hat

Over time, the canotier was used by all social classes. It was used by vaudeville musical actors, as well as by FBI agents in pre-war times. In the world of cinema, the actors Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire or Maurice Chevalier were the maximum representatives of the canotier. In films such as Stanley Kramer's "Inherit the Wind" (1960) or Robert Preston's "The Music Man" (1962), the canotier became an indispensable complement. In France he is represented in celebrated paintings of Auguste Renoir.

Coco Chanel chose the canotier as a symbol of the new era, getting to impose the hat as one of the symbols of the new woman. Coco's first triumph came during a visit to the racetrack before World War I. Touched in a canotier hat and a tailored suit faced feathers, fillings and ladies corsets. All of Paris began to talk about their hats.

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