Bigalli Hat History & Heritage

Ezio Bigalli Corbani grew up in Signa, Italy, in a family of hatmakers, then crossed to Ecuador and put Italian felt craft next to paja toquilla straw. In 1926 the Bigalli workshop was underway — Panama straw woven the Ecuadorian way, wool felt finished with an Italian eye. Four generations later the family still runs the looms and the blocks. We carry Bigalli here in Fayetteville.

The Story of Bigalli

1900Signa, Italy

Ezio Bigalli Corbani came out of Signa, a Tuscan town that knew hats the way other towns knew wine. The family trade was millinery — block, felt, finish — learned young and kept close. That Italian standard of clean lines and tight work is still the first half of every Bigalli story.

1920–1926Ecuador workshop

Ezio left Italy for Ecuador in 1920 and found a country famous for toquilla straw — the fiber the world calls Panama. By 1926 the Bigalli workshop was open: European hatmaking on one bench, Ecuadorian straw craft on the other. One family name on both.

Paja toquillaThe real Panama

Panama hats are woven in Ecuador. Bigalli built its straw line on paja toquilla — fine, light, worked by hands that had the weave in their families before the brand had a label. The point was never a costume hat. It was a straw that held a shape and earned the brim.

Felt and strawTwo crafts, one house

Italian felt tradition never left the shop. Merino wool, clean blocks, dress shapes beside the straw. Bigalli’s edge is still that double fluency — a house that can cut a fedora and a Panama without treating either like a side project. Materials first. Then the finish.

Four generationsStill family

The name stayed in the family. Four generations have kept the workshop standard while the hats moved into international markets and a U.S. distribution hub in Dallas. Same argument as year one: make it well enough that the next generation can put their name on it too.

TodayFitted in Fayetteville

Bigalli still means Italian eye and Ecuadorian hands — straw and felt, built to wear. We carry the line at Moon Ridge in Fayetteville. Come try one on at the hat bar, or shop online and we’ll ship it to your door.