W Hotels launches Panama hat collection with Gigi Burris

W Hotels is honoring its new Panama City location with a stylish fashion collaboration.

The luxury hotel chain has teamed up with Gigi Burris Millinery on a trio of festive Panama hats -- a design originally conceived in Ecuador -- as part of its longterm partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). The launch celebrates the company's new Panama City location, which opened its doors in March this year.

Dubbed 'W Hotels X Gigi Burris', the collection comprises three different styles inspired by the iconic Central American city, including the 'Canal', a flat-brimmed fedora trimmed with papaya cotton grosgrain that pays homage to the town's spray-painted facades, and the 'Quera,' a straw-based, heart-shaped design featuring a bright patterned fabric sourced from Panama's Emberá Quera tribe and hand-dyed with naturally-occurring pigments from the Panamanian rainforest.

The 'Mangrove', a short-brimmed style that nods to the Spanish colonial architecture found throughout the city, completes the series.

"These hats are a testament to the beauty of Panama and its synonymous silhouette that has become an icon of the accessory world," said Burris. "My diverse experiences exploring Panama City have brought to life these three distinct and unique spins on this classic look."

The move is the latest of several collaborations between W Hotels and the fashion industry.

The brand's participation in the CFDA Fashion Incubator program has seen it team up with designers such as Misha Nonoo and Isa Tapia in the past, and in 2016 the company hired supermodel Joan Smalls as its first ‘Global Fashion Innovator'.

Smalls was charged with the task of creating destination guides for W guests wanting to experience the best of the local fashion scene.