Reaching for a straw hat to complete our seaside look—or frankly, any summer outfit—is as instinctive to us as say, oh I don’t know, breathing. Next to sunglasses, it’s one of the most obvious accessories to use as protection against the sun’s harmful UV rays, but its origins are less than clear. When an item is as ubiquitous as that of a straw hat, it’s virtually impossible to determine its original maker or even pinpoint the first documentation of its existence. (Fun fact about hats: Historians believe that some type of head-covering piece—as protection against inclement weather—was the first article of clothing ever worn by humans.)

        Straw hats—distinguished by their woven makeup of different types of straw or fibers similar in texture and strength, like braided hemp, raffia, and jute—are believed to have been worn in Europe and Asia as early as the 15th century (after the Middle Ages). In most countries in Asia, including Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, rice paddy workers topped their heads with conical-shaped hats to shield themselves from the sun and the rain, though legend in Vietnam has it that the hat, or nón lá in Vietnamese, originated from when a goddess descended from the sky wearing an enormous hat made of four large leaves held together by bamboo sticks, which protected the people from a torrential downpour.