In the middle of the 19th century, the success of the straw hat was such the statistics of the National Academy of Ecuador put forward the figure, for 1863, of five hundred thousand articles originating from several regions of the country, and ready for export via Guayaquil. It is true that, in the terms of markets, Europe had now become a destination, along with the United States and the neighbouring South America countries.
In 1855, Paris discovered this unrivalled straw hat during the World fair. The catalogue did not even mention Ecuador as a participating country, and it was in the space reserved for “diverse countries” that the French- man Philippe Raimondi, arriving from Panama, where he lived, presented the toquilla hat in France for the first time. Despite quite a large stock the young man not satisfy the immense demand which had created. The fineness of the texture of the hat did not cease to impress the Parisians, despite their reputation as demanding customers, and the catalogue of the World Fair mentioned a hat in “straw cloth”!
