There’s a familiar ritual to the last holiday of the season: the airport dash, the paperback, and somewhere along the way, a straw hat bought in a hurry that will be crushed, forgotten or falling apart by the time you land back home. Bask + Groove would like a word about that hat. The Ibiza born label makes unisex straw hats handwoven in Ecuador and designed for the long game, bought once, packed for every trip after, and better for the wear.
Founder Monty Gammond, an Ibiza resident with a background in club nights and live music events, came to hats out of frustration rather than fashion. “I struggled to find a unisex hat with a brim that truly offered sun protection, while still feeling stylish and versatile,” he says. “I wanted to create soulful pieces for women and men that live with you — hats that travel, age, and evolve with your life rather than sit in a seasonal wardrobe.“
The making happens a long way from the Balearics. Each hat is woven entirely by hand from toquilla straw, a natural fibre native to Ecuador with a lineage stretching back to the Incas, who wove lightweight hats against the equatorial sun. That tradition survives through master artisans working with techniques passed down through generations, and because everything is done by hand, no two hats come out identical.
The sustainability credentials are more substantial than the usual boilerplate. Toquilla straw is fully biodegradable, the dyes are non-pollutant, and the brand commits to fair wages for its Ecuadorian weaving communities while sourcing fibres from small local suppliers. Even the packaging follows through: untreated recyclable card and GOTS-certified organic cotton bags, with no plastic in sight. “This tradition represents a slower, more intentional way of making,” Gammond says, “where sustainability and heritage are inseparable.”
The collection itself is tightly edited: three unisex styles, each in four sizes and a palette of natural, teal and brown. The Classic (£180) is the signature wide-brimmed shape; Jack Straw (£170) sits somewhere between fedora and sunhat; and The Bucket Bohemia (£165) reworks the bucket hat in woven straw. The earthy colourways and pared-back shapes carry an unmistakably Ibizan sensibility — less superclub, more the quiet, rural north of the island where Gammond is now based.
At these prices, Bask + Groove is asking you to think of a straw hat as an investment rather than an impulse buy, and the craftsmanship makes a reasonable case. This is the hat you buy before this year’s flight and reach for again before next year’s, creased into character, softened by salt air, and carrying a few summers’ worth of stories by the time anyone asks where it’s from.
Bask + Groove hats are available at baskandgroove.com, with UK shipping.
