Rigon Headwear partners with Deborah Hutton on Canopy Bay

Deborah Hutton’s new line of sunsafe hats, Canopy Bay, are not only chic, but rated UPF50

Deborah Hutton wears one of the designs from a range of new Canopy Bay sun hats developed by Australian business Rigon. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

Australians have been used to the “slip, slop, slap” message for decades now.

But Deborah Hutton was alarmed to discover that slapping on any old hat wasn’t necessarily enough to combat the sun’s rays.

“I had no idea – how come people don’t know about this?” Hutton told The Australian.

Having been twice diagnosed with facial skin cancers, and last year undergoing surgery to remove a basal cell carcinoma, Hutton leapt at the opportunity to partner with Australian hat company Rigon on a range of UPF50 hats, called Canopy Bay, released on Wednesday.

When Hutton released a photo of herself following her surgery – of the stitches, the nurse told her there were “too many to count” – she did so to highlight to other Australians the dangers of not being sunsafe.

She sees this new venture as continuing in the same direction.

“Had I known, if someone had put up (that photo) and said, this is what you’re looking at in future, I’d say, ‘Sit under a brolly, with a sunsafe hat on and cover yourself in SPF.’

“I might have taken it a bit more seriously. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

“I’m just trying to wave a red flag here, don’t take it for granted. You’re playing with your future, particularly in Australia.”

Headwear company Rigon developed a unique material called Flexibraid that is not only sunsafe when created into hats, but also lightweight, and able to weather water, rolling in a ball or packing flat – once we can travel again.

The material was developed by Rigon, is manufactured in China, and the fabric sewn into hats in its West Gosford base, having brought more of the manufacturing back from China.

It was Hutton’s story last year in Women’s Weekly – and that photo – that made Rigon’s Tina Madsen Walcott reach out to her to share their existing UPF50 designs.

“I feel like when you go out in the sun, you make sure you’re wearing your sunscreen, you check that your sunglasses have a UV lens,” said Madsen Walcott.

“But I’m not sure how many people would check their hat.”

Despite the challenge of launching while much of the country is locked down, Hutton is looking to sunny skies ahead – under the shade of a wide brim.

“We’re going into a summer of not only of temperatures rising, but with lockdown restrictions we’re going to be spending more time outside doing our thing and we need to be really smart about it.”