Topping It Off in Old San Juan

San Juan has designer outlets, duty free stores galore, and the Caribbean’s largest mall, Plaza Las Americas, where more than 300 stores tempt you to whip out your credit card. But as a black-belt “globeshopper,” I’m always on the lookout for something unique to the place I’m visiting, that offers real value for money and has a good story behind it, too – and I found just the thing in Old San Juan today when I happened upon Olé at 105 Fortaleza Street.

The tiny store is owned by the lovely and charming Guillermo Jeffs, who comes from a long line of Chilean hat makers and came to Puerto Rico more than four decades ago. In 1977 he established Olé, a tiny store that sells a colorful collection of art and handicraft and specializes in custom-fitted Panama hats.

Guillermo explained that the term “Panama” doesn’t apply to a particular style of hat but to the type of fibre used to make it and the specific style of weaving. Panama hats, therefore, can be made in a variety of styles, including the characteristic thin-brimmed, black-banded version we all know.

Olé’s collection exceeds 5,000 hats, ranging in price from $45 (for toppers which take about two days to make) to a whopping $4,000 for a hat that can take as long as two years to complete. There are wide-brimmed fedoras, colorfully variegated and open-weave versions, and fetching British Modern styles – which I fell in love with, but which were, alas, too small for my big-brained head.

I chose instead a tight-woven classic Panama accented with a scarlet cotton ribbon, – and for the first time I’m the owner of a hat that comfortably accommodates my bulbous brain and abundant mane. As I left the store I felt like quite the savvy shopper – smart, stylish, and proud to have done my part to stimulate the national economy.

Have you discovered any other worthwhile retail “shopportunities” in San Juan or elsewhere in the Caribbean? Share your finds with the class.

Topping It Off in Old San Juan