contrast brim and red trim, and The Healer, a boldly woven shantung straw pork pie hat from the Carlos Santana collection that may just be the coolest hat of the year.

Vented men's hats are always good choices for warm weather wear, and we've got a new hat this season from Biltmore, called The Abby Road. This is a fabulous shantung straw fedora with open weave venting, snap brim, leather sweatband and grosgrain trim with tonal overlay. Another vented hat is The Liberation, new from the Carlos by Carlos Santana line. It's a toyo fedora with a pinch front, tie print trim with guitar pin and stingy bound edge brim. Santana also offers up a hat with a vented open weave called The Shifter. This is a Panama fedora with a woven contrast color brim and trim with Indian print overlay. You're sure to catch the breeze in style with this hat.

More cool straw comes your way with The Sinamay/Hemp Fedora. This is a Stacy Adams hat and it's an incredibly lightweight one in a blend of sinamay straw and hemp. The hat features a two inch brim, pinch front and fancy textured ribbon trim complete with Stacy pin and feather. Another sinamay straw hat called The Sleek is brought to you by Carlos Santana as part of the Carlos by Carlos Santana line. It too is a truly cool hat with a bound stingy brim and Satana guitar pin on the ribbon band.

No list of straw hats is complete without at least a cursory look at those from Dobbs. For example, The DeSoto is a new hat this season from Dobbs with a fancy band. Crafted from Venetian Milan straw, it's a pinch front fedora with a 2 1/4 inch wide brim. Note the Dobbs pin on the trim as a mark of distinction. Customers love their Dobbs hats, and leave glowing reviews like the one for The Naples, a lightly ventilated Florentine Milan braid straw fedora where Robert S. from Texas says: "I have this hat; it's one of your better hats. I get asked about it all the time: let me have that hat; sell me that hat; where did I get that me; who makes that hat. I need to get me another one real soon." A Florida customer is just as enthusiastic about his Dobbs Milan straw fedora, The Parker, saying "this is my all time favorite! I have received numerous compliments on this and it fits perfectly and looks fantastic on me!"

Once you've seen the variety of casual straw gamblers, fedoras and dress hats offered by these top brand name hat makers, you'll never think quite the same about straw hats again. It's pretty amazing what they can do with a weed these days.