A lifelong hat enthusiast himself, it was Cain’s inability to
find a great Panama in Singapore, where he’s lived since 1989, that
led to him founding his own headwear business in 2012, Hat of Cain.
Perpetually sundrenched, tropical Singapore is the perfect place to
wear a Panama hat — it’s even on the same latitude as Ecuador (the
name of which means equator), the country where these handwoven
wonders are made. “Not only here, but across Southeast Asia, there
wasn’t really anyone selling authentic Panama hats. I took the
opportunity to fill the niche, setting out to revive hat culture in
this region,” Cain says.
He’s done well. What started out as a passion project for Cain
quickly became so successful that a couple of years ago, he was
able to quit his corporate day job and focus full-time on Hat of
Cain. “I love what I do,” Cain says with a grin, trademark Cuban
cigar in hand. “Being able to meet interesting people and provide a
beautiful product that, when someone puts it on, they feel a little
more dapper, more self-confident — a bit sharper. That’s incredibly
satisfying.” In establishing Hat of Cain, he says, “Our goal was to
offer great quality Panama hats at really reasonable and affordable
prices, while at the same time educating people about the craft
involved, as well as the science of style and fit.”
Hat of Cain’s Panamas are exclusively imported from trusted
dealers in Ecuador, a half-dozen dependable sources with whom Cain
has built relationships over the years. (To learn more about the
provenance and painstaking craftsmanship that goes into making an
authentic Panama hat of the sort sold by HoC, read our
definitive article
on the topic. The brand’s new relationship with The Rake resulted
from another personal encounter — with this publication’s founder,
Wei Koh. “Wei came into the store one day, we got talking and began
thinking about which of our hats were the most quintessentially
‘rakish’,” Cain says.
The tightly curated selection the two decided upon caters to
rakes of all stripes — from the louche rocker (with a
distressed-grey homage to Keith Richards) to the swingin’
sophisticate (a style named for Frank Sinatra), the
Casablanca-prowling player (the Bogart), the irreverent hipster (in
the slim-brimmed Jimmy Boy), the man of ultra-refined tastes (with
the fully handmade William), or the urbane classicist (the Cuban
Panama). “We just chose a selection of hats that we felt that were
very versatile and easy to wear, either casually dressed with a
linen shirt or coupled with more formal tailoring,” Cain remarks.
“Whether you’re after something traditional or a younger look, it’s
all there.”
Cain issues an open invitation to Rake readers to drop in to his
store, situated in a charming colonial shophouse on Singapore’s
east coast, for a negroni (and a stogie if you fancy) once the
world starts travelling once again. Until then, you can always take
your head to the tropics in a Hat of Cain Panama.
