Sun-Phobic Writer’s Perfect $180 Panama Hat Prompts Envy, Jokes

Peter Bartholomaus stood in the sixth-floor showroom of New York’s Worth & Worth Hats, explaining his predilection for lightweight Panama straw hats.

“I wore baseball caps, and as I got older I wanted finer things,” said the 26-year-old staffer at the National Dance Institute, a non-profit that teaches dance to public school students. “It helps keep the sun off you and they’re super-handsome.”