Berets, Anyone?

[Historyteach24]

Well it was free so I'm not out anything. Thanks for the info

 

[Moca]

Well it was free so I'm not out anything. Thanks for the info

you're not telling me that berets are collector items, are you? in the sense of investment, value building?

 

[Daan]

you're not telling me that berets are collector items, are you? in the sense of investment, value building?

'Collectors items' and 'Items for investment' are two distinctively different subjects.
Yes, berets (and their labels) can definitely become collectors items. During the 1950's and '60's there were hundreds of different embroidered beret labels, some beautiful pieces of art in their own right, and there are a number of people collecting these. I know of one Frenchman who collects only the actual lining with the label attached (in the aforementioned period, the lining was often very distinct too; multi-coloured, in silk, etc) and has these framed in very pretty oak and olive wood frames.

I check out vintage berets on Ebay and similar auction sites regularly and sometimes find an absolute beauty (not often), but personally, would never pay more than $30.00 or so for an old beret (with often a cracked or damaged leather headband, moth holes and torn lining). Occasionally I come across berets listed for $100.00 or more (often claiming to be from the 1920's or 30's for some reason, while the beret is obviously from the 1960's), but I never saw any beret sold for that sort of money.
So, as for 'Investment items', I don't think berets should be your subject of choice.

 

[Kreissaege]

Daan, how about a picture of your collection, all of them? We promise not to send SWMBO the link!

 

[alsendk]

Fine idea. I would love too to see a Collection of berets

 

[Daan]

Oh well, I'd better get the camera out then (if I can fit them all in one picture...). To be continued.

 

[alsendk]

Exellent Daan
While waiting...... :OP

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[Daan]

Interesting article from BBC Radio-4. It touches on the issue I mentioned here earlier, the competition and mistrust between the two remaining French factories: Blancq-Olibet and Beatex-Laulhere. In about every publication you can find on the internet, it will state that Beatex-Laulhere is the one and only remaining French manufacturer, often in the context of it disappearing soon (and there would be no French manufacturer left). We know better, of course! Blancq-Olibet is very much alive and makes a huge range of berets, from the basic one-size-fit-all Bakarra to some of the best berets found on the market today. Much of the animosity stems from the period of the previous (mis)-management of Beatex-Laulhere (they have changed into new ownership this year), with previous CEO M. Lemoine being especially vicious about his competitor.
I sell berets of both manufacturers: the field version Tarte is made by Beatex-Laulhere, while all other French berets come from Blancq-Olibet. Recent attempts to add Beatex-Laulhere's berets to the stock failed as there was too little (or no) room for specific variations.

"The traditional headgear of the French farmer, the beret, is now rarely made in France itself. But the two remaining factories are finding ways of keeping their business alive.
The historical roots of one of France's most totemic objects, the beret, lie in the small town of Nay, deep in the Pyrenees Mountain range.
Its wide streets, arcades and large warehouses give away that this was once an important manufacturing centre. After World War II, the town and surrounding region were home to 50 factories and thousands of jobs in the beret-making business.

Now there are just two beret works left in Nay. They run the local Beret Museum - dedicated to the history of the famous headgear - in one of the former grand hat-making factories.
There are plenty of old weaving machines that were once used to make hats from the wool of local sheep. Faded photos on the walls underline that berets were once almost compulsory for men, a proud display of regional identity.
Children wore them to school, while for farm workers they provided essential protection against the damp and cold of winter and intense sunshine in the mountains.
The tide began to turn against the beret in the 1950s.
Farm labour started to die out, young people began to flock to the cities... and hats in general began to go out of style.
Bangladesh
But it was globalisation which finished off the French beret for good as a mass-produced export.

The military remains a big potential market
Like countless other sectors of the European textile industry, production moved to Asia. Nearly all the world's berets are now made in Bangladesh.
French beret manufacturers - nearly all based in south-west France - were unprepared for the competition and unable to compete on price with their Asian counterparts. Most of their factories closed down for good in the 1980s.
Just two have survived: Beatex and Blancq-Olibet. Between them they have around 100 employees. Their headquarters are less than 30 miles apart - but rather than join forces, these two firms watch each other warily and try to keep hold of what ever market share they can.
Alain Zachar runs Blancq-Olibet. He used to be in the shirt-making business - but saw that industry vanish, as low-cost producers emerged in China. So he has gone into berets.
But he told me that this time he focused on big buyers with financial backing. In other words, the military.
The French army is buying berets in the tens of thousands and if Alain can provide high-quality, well-made hats tough enough for soldiers then he could emerge a winner. And not just in France.
He sees potential for selling military berets across the world - especially for UN peacekeeping operations, where the floppy hat appears far less aggressive than a helmet.
Peasant chic
Down the road in Oloron St Marie, the Beatex company is housed in an old factory that's now far too big for its current volume of production.

Luxury designers have added French-made berets to their collections
In a warehouse, modern machines spin wool into yarn. Next door around a dozen women work behind sewing machines, threading together the trimmings.
A showroom exhibits the latest models and you quickly see that this company has a new customer in mind.
With prices as high as 70 euros (£62 or $100) per beret, Beatex is targeting women looking for a peasant chic look.
Celebrities like Madonna and Claudia Schiffer have been spotted wearing the hat. Luxury designers Christian Dior and Hermes like the idea and have added the high-quality French-made berets to their collections - hoping women not just in Paris but Tokyo and New York will buy them.
Beatex's owner Pierre Lemoine told me that going upmarket is the only way he can compete with cheap imports. The French-made beret only has a future as an expensive fashion accessory, he says.
How ironic that a garment so rooted in a regional, rural, peasant lifestyle could survive thanks to a global market of urban fashionistas."

Article by Chris Bockman, BBC-4.

 

[Kreissaege]

Thank god we have Boinas Elosegui!
Still sitting on the fence re the winter tarte from Beatex-Laulherre. If the Euro wouldnt be so bloody weak!
Its the only one still missing in my collection.

 

[Daan]

Thank god we have Boinas Elosegui!
Still sitting on the fence re the winter tarte from Beatex-Laulherre. If the Euro wouldnt be so bloody weak!
Its the only one still missing in my collection.

Yep, and winter is approaching rapidly up north, I read in the morning paper while sitting in the sun in shorts and T-shirt (wearing a light Basco Roma).

Living at the bottom of the world has it's advantages, but not where the exchange rate is concerned (at present). The over-strong NZ$ makes it pretty hard to maintain prices in US$ the way they are (and I agree, the winter Tarte is expensive enough the way it is).

 

[Bird Lives]

Hi Daan:

I was just purveying your site this morning...You mentioned here that Dizzy Gillespie's berets you call a 'Hybrid'...as a trumpet player who studied with and eventually played with him, I've been a fan of his berets since I was a kid. In high-school in the 60's I even donned a dept store beret in Dizzy's honor..I've noticed that all the pics I've seen of him wearing a beret, they do all have an external head-band, but not a leather head band...but I guess a wool external head band...

So who makes a model similar to his...and all of his seem to be the same diameter...Would you call that a medium or small diameter ?....

Thanks...if I can pick up any more gigs soon, I have the fever to 'Bop' a beret in my immediate future...

 

[alsendk]

Here is a wonderful Picture of Dizzy

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[Bird Lives]

You're right...that's a fantastic photo...suitable for framing....I love it, thanks...

 

[Daan]

I've noticed that all the pics I've seen of him wearing a beret, they do all have an external head-band, but not a leather head band...but I guess a wool external head band...
So who makes a model similar to his...and all of his seem to be the same diameter...Would you call that a medium or small diameter ?....

Hi Bird Lives,

Yes, I know of a few pictures of DG wearing a "hybrid beret" with (what I think is) a sewn-on headband, not so much an external headband (which is the military style band or a Basque berets's headband turned outwards). A good example is the picture below:

I have no idea what this specific beret is (label, who made it, etc), but it looks more like a composite, meaning two or more pieces sewn together. On this picture you can see a seam going all the way from back to front. The closest I have to a beret like this one, is the Franco-German Baskenmuetze with external headband (see below) and which are actually most often sold to... Jazz musicians!

But then, there are many more photographs of DG wearing a true Basque beret. I paste in a few below:

Is this any help?

 

[Daan]

All that Jazz

And talking about Berets and Jazz, have a look at these fine samples:

Louis Banks is a Grammy Award nominated film composer, record producer, jazz musician-keyboardist, singer and dedicated beret wearer.

Christophe Monniot is a jazz saxophonist from Caen (France).

Anita O'Day, or real name Anita Belle Colton (1919 – 2006) was an American jazz singer.

Horace Tapscott (born Horace Elva Tapscott, Houston, Texas, April 6, 1934; d. Los Angeles, February 27 or February 29, 1999) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (also known as P.A.P.A., or The Ark) in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s.

Bernard Lubat (1945) is a French jazz and contemporary classical music pianist, multi-instrumentalist and singer. In addition to piano and performing as a singer, Lubat also plays (electronic) drums, percussion instruments, accordion, synthesizer and vibraphone.

Nick Lucas (1897 - 1982) was an American singer and pioneer jazz guitarist, remembered as "the grandfather of the jazz guitar", whose peak of popularity lasted from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s.

Suzy Mangion is one of those performers music critics rave about, but not enough people have heard of. Get to know Suzy here.

Dan Jacobs (1942) is a jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player.

And Charlie Parker, Bob De Vos, etc... Just to name a few of the many bereted jazz musicians.

 

[DougC]

Louis Banks is clearly wearing a flat cap from Kangol...white kangaroo on the front, visor in the back.

 

[Daan]

Louis Banks is clearly wearing a flat cap from Kangol...white kangaroo on the front, visor in the back.

You're absolutely right! how about this one:

 

[DougC]

That's more like it!

 

[Bird Lives]

Wow...I love my Borsalino '50's Fedora....and nothin' will change that....But nothing can take away from the hippness of these Berets either...and between Daan and Ron and all our other resources...The finest Berets ever made are so easy to acquire...This is too good to be true...My wife has ordered me a 11" Black Super-Lujo-...bandless and with the full luxury treatment...I'm psyched & can't wait...

 

[Daan]

Being a vegetarian for most of my life, I don't have much with hunting and hunters. But, remembering my childhood holidays in the Belgian Ardennes and France, with countless encounters with beret-wearing hunters, I thought it would make an interesting post. Surprisingly, I find it hard to source any (old) photographs of "bereted" hunters; all searches end with many more pictures of military "hunter" (infantry) regiments, like the Chasseurs Ardennais and the Chasseurs Alpins.

Delving a little further into the matter of hunting and headgear, I did come across many brightly coloured berets (often with embroidered boars, deer, partridges, etc). Most hunters prefer not to be hunted themselves and it is shocking -reading my NZ daily newspaper- how often that actually happens here (would it be much different in France, due to red and orange berets?). Trigger happy hunters shooting their best mate, mistaking him for a deer or wild boar, is a constantly returning feature in the NZ news. And yes, many of these hunting victims are completely dressed in military style camouflage (despite their prey not being able to distinguish colours anyway).
Visiting some internet hunting gear web sites, I see there is a trend developing for bright orange gear, but still, the full camouflage seems to appeal more to most. Quite different from those old men in woolen jumpers or tweed jackets and black berets from my childhood memory.

Anyway, I'll do my bit to reduce silly deaths (of hunters, not of the hunted), by stocking these beautiful dark orange berets Beruettas made by Blancq-Olibet in their quality 565 range. Identical to the loden-green version that is worn by the Chasseurs Ardennais, and really, not only for hunters - I might keep one for myself!