Panama hat more hats than they ever could in Ecuador. The hats were sold to gold prospectors traveling through Panama to California during the historic Californian Gold Rush. Travelers would tell people admiring their hats that they bought them in Panama. So, the hats quickly became known as “Panama hats.” Soon after at the 1855 World's Fair in Paris, Panama hats were featured for the first time on a global scale. However, the Fair’s catalog did not mention Ecuador as its country of origin. It listed this type of hat as a “cloth hat” even though it was clearly not made out
Hats (album) to Buchanan, "we knew exactly what we were doing. We actually recorded the rest of "Hats" super quick ... Honestly, half of "Hats" was, like, a week." In a 2012 interview with ClashMusic.com, Buchanan reflected on the time lost trying to make the album: The album was released in October 1989 simultaneously in both the UK and the US: since The Blue Nile was essentially unknown in the United States in 1989, the cover artwork for the US release of "Hats" was slightly modified for marketing reasons, with the band's name in larger letters. As a promotional tool, A&M Records—who