Berets, Anyone?

[Fern]

Chasseurs Alpins, Old & New

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I am often astonished how much material there is to be found on the "old" Chasseurs Alpins, photos and film from early last century. Not many military units can match that and it says something about these illustrious hunters' place in society.
Another obvious difference with any other military unit, apart from the 'Tarte' of course, are the beards and the large variety in uniforms worn.
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Yes, there is a certain romance around it, which is quite different from the present-day Chasseurs. Not many berets, or tartes, in this video but it gives a nice insight of how these mountain troops have evolved over the decades.

The beret appears briefly:

 

[Daan]

The new weekly SPECIAL at South Pacific Berets!

The Goat in a Tree series is the outcome of a collaboration with artist Billy Childish; a range of berets in a variety of materials, colours and diameters.

All of excellent quality, great comfort and showing excellent artisan craftsmanship. All berets are fitted with a solid 100% cotton lining.

For one week only, on SPECIAL (or as long as stock lasts) @ $42.50!

 

[Daan]

Protest, and response, French style in Paris two days ago.

 

[Fern]

Bought this on eBay because the picture looked so clear and the Basque farmer so classic.

 

[Mm25]

Gauchos taming a horse, many cool berets.

 

[quikrick]

Elosegui Extra 1858 28cm

 

[Fern]

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Elosegui Extra 1858 28cm

Pure classic. Mine has the leather band, and while I’ve said before that it feels like a proper hat when I wear it, I also noticed that it does leave a pink band on my forehead even if the size is correct for me.

 

[Edward]

The new weekly SPECIAL at South Pacific Berets!
View attachment 402243 View attachment 402244
The Goat in a Tree series is the outcome of a collaboration with artist Billy Childish; a range of berets in a variety of materials, colours and diameters.
View attachment 402245 View attachment 402246 View attachment 402247 View attachment 402248 View attachment 402249
All of excellent quality, great comfort and showing excellent artisan craftsmanship. All berets are fitted with a solid 100% cotton lining.
View attachment 402250
For one week only, on SPECIAL (or as long as stock lasts) @ $42.50!
View attachment 402251

GAH.... managed to resist the green cotton (so far), but succumbed to the lure of the Bordeaux....

Picked up one of the cotton ones in pale / slate grey-blue last year, cracking throw-on cap when the weather turns warmer. I've been wearing berets a lot, possibly more than any other hat, since lockdown. This will see some significant use on a planned holiday to the IoW in June.

 

[Edward]

Pure classic. Mine has the leather band, and while I’ve said before that it feels like a proper hat when I wear it, I also noticed that it does leave a pink band on my forehead even if the size is correct for me.

I have berets both with and without a leather band. I agree it's a nice touch, though equally there's something really nice about the one or two I have with no badge on them and no band, so easy to just thrown on and not worry about what's front / back and so on...

 

[Fern]

Thought you fellas might appreciate this. I got this nice silver Pyrrha pin as a gift and thought it would look good on my boina.

While not looking to redo a chasseur alpin look, it does remind me of that beret style a little. At least I like it better than the Laulhere.

 

[quikrick]

Thought you fellas might appreciate this. I got this nice silver Pyrrha pin as a gift and thought it would look good on my boina.

While not looking to redo a chasseur alpin look, it does remind me of that beret style a little. At least I like it better than the Laulhere.

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That pin is so cool. I clicked on the link.... Awesome! The boina is cool too.

 

[quikrick]

Elosegui Moss Green 315mm +/-

 

[Daan]

This beautiful video deals with all clichés about Frenchmen and berets in particular.
It is also full of interesting information about the Basque beret (and it looks like the author must have visited The Beret Project regularly during his creating process).
Unfortunately the text is in French, but a translation follows below:

Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude finds himself very embarrassed on leaving the Louvre. He is looking for someone to ask how to get to the Musée d´Orsay. However, he sees only easily recognizable tourists. Japanese cameras, Americans wearing baseball caps, Germans wearing Birkenstocks and gesticulating Italians.
Among all these foreigners, how can Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude detect a real Frenchman? The answer is very simple, everyone knows, thanks to countless cartoons, what a real Frenchman looks like.
We recognize him thanks to his moustache, the baguette he holds under his arm, the bottle of red wine which sometimes protrudes from his pocket, but above all thanks to the Basque beret, permanently screwed on his head.
This headgear is so typical of France that in Germany it is even called "French beret" or downright "French lid". Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude goes straight to the first Basque beret wearer.
And then, disappointment! The man comes from Neckar-Steinach and worships Che Guevara. The second beret wearer alas, is also German. He is a francophile teacher, eco-friendly, green.
As for the third bearer of a Basque beret, no doubt, it can only be a Frenchman.
He also carries a baguette under his arm. But disappointment once again. This Frenchman is none other than a young alternative from Berlin.
Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude draws the following conclusion from this adventure: those who wear this typical French headgear are in fact German intellectuals; Francophiles who abhor both German hats and ridiculous baseball caps.
But why is this hat called “Basque beret”? This denomination comes from Emperor Napoleon III. While he was staying in the Basque Country with the Empress Eugénie, he noticed these berets and wrongly called them “Basque berets”.
And as no one dared to contradict the Monarch, the term imposed itself. In fact, the beret is a particularly appreciated hat in the South-West of France: in Béarn, Gascony and the Basque Country.
Originally knitted in wool, it was mainly worn by shepherds in the Pyrenees. Practical, indestructible, easy to fold or roll up to be stored in a pocket, it was adopted by many armies around the world.
In France, in the 1940s, the beret was in vogue and it was worn in almost all the country. So much so that in Alsace-Lorraine, during the German Occupation, wearing a beret became a symbol of the Resistance and therefore ended up being banned there.
But ironically, the French Militia, this sinister brigade composed of the worst collaborators, and who fought the resistance by the cruellest means, also adopted this typically French headgear.
And yet, the beret has not disappeared. And even this headgear which has meanwhile become a real classic, regularly returns to the fore. Even if is only on the heads Germans…

 

[Mm25]

View attachment 402899 View attachment 402900 View attachment 402901
Elosegui Moss Green 315mm +/-

Great color! I have one on the way that was listed as moss green, but lt looked darker. I hope jt looks like yours.

 

[Fern]

That pin is so cool. I clicked on the link.... Awesome! The boina is cool too.

Thanks @quikrick!

 

[Fern]

This beautiful video deals with all clichés about Frenchmen and berets in particular.
It is also full of interesting information about the Basque beret (and it looks like the author must have visited The Beret Project regularly during his creating process).
Unfortunately the text is in French, but a translation follows below:

Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude finds himself very embarrassed on leaving the Louvre. He is looking for someone to ask how to get to the Musée d´Orsay. However, he sees only easily recognizable tourists. Japanese cameras, Americans wearing baseball caps, Germans wearing Birkenstocks and gesticulating Italians.
Among all these foreigners, how can Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude detect a real Frenchman? The answer is very simple, everyone knows, thanks to countless cartoons, what a real Frenchman looks like.
We recognize him thanks to his moustache, the baguette he holds under his arm, the bottle of red wine which sometimes protrudes from his pocket, but above all thanks to the Basque beret, permanently screwed on his head.
This headgear is so typical of France that in Germany it is even called "French beret" or downright "French lid". Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude goes straight to the first Basque beret wearer.
And then, disappointment! The man comes from Neckar-Steinach and worships Che Guevara. The second beret wearer alas, is also German. He is a francophile teacher, eco-friendly, green.
As for the third bearer of a Basque beret, no doubt, it can only be a Frenchman.
He also carries a baguette under his arm. But disappointment once again. This Frenchman is none other than a young alternative from Berlin.
Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude draws the following conclusion from this adventure: those who wear this typical French headgear are in fact German intellectuals; Francophiles who abhor both German hats and ridiculous baseball caps.
But why is this hat called “Basque beret”? This denomination comes from Emperor Napoleon III. While he was staying in the Basque Country with the Empress Eugénie, he noticed these berets and wrongly called them “Basque berets”.
And as no one dared to contradict the Monarch, the term imposed itself. In fact, the beret is a particularly appreciated hat in the South-West of France: in Béarn, Gascony and the Basque Country.
Originally knitted in wool, it was mainly worn by shepherds in the Pyrenees. Practical, indestructible, easy to fold or roll up to be stored in a pocket, it was adopted by many armies around the world.
In France, in the 1940s, the beret was in vogue and it was worn in almost all the country. So much so that in Alsace-Lorraine, during the German Occupation, wearing a beret became a symbol of the Resistance and therefore ended up being banned there.
But ironically, the French Militia, this sinister brigade composed of the worst collaborators, and who fought the resistance by the cruellest means, also adopted this typically French headgear.
And yet, the beret has not disappeared. And even this headgear which has meanwhile become a real classic, regularly returns to the fore. Even if is only on the heads Germans…

Thank you for the nice translation. @Daan — the video illustrations were tres francais, also!

 

[Edward]

This beautiful video deals with all clichés about Frenchmen and berets in particular.
It is also full of interesting information about the Basque beret (and it looks like the author must have visited The Beret Project regularly during his creating process).
Unfortunately the text is in French, but a translation follows below:

Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude finds himself very embarrassed on leaving the Louvre. He is looking for someone to ask how to get to the Musée d´Orsay. However, he sees only easily recognizable tourists. Japanese cameras, Americans wearing baseball caps, Germans wearing Birkenstocks and gesticulating Italians.
Among all these foreigners, how can Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude detect a real Frenchman? The answer is very simple, everyone knows, thanks to countless cartoons, what a real Frenchman looks like.
We recognize him thanks to his moustache, the baguette he holds under his arm, the bottle of red wine which sometimes protrudes from his pocket, but above all thanks to the Basque beret, permanently screwed on his head.
This headgear is so typical of France that in Germany it is even called "French beret" or downright "French lid". Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude goes straight to the first Basque beret wearer.
And then, disappointment! The man comes from Neckar-Steinach and worships Che Guevara. The second beret wearer alas, is also German. He is a francophile teacher, eco-friendly, green.
As for the third bearer of a Basque beret, no doubt, it can only be a Frenchman.
He also carries a baguette under his arm. But disappointment once again. This Frenchman is none other than a young alternative from Berlin.
Hans Biedermann from Buxtehude draws the following conclusion from this adventure: those who wear this typical French headgear are in fact German intellectuals; Francophiles who abhor both German hats and ridiculous baseball caps.
But why is this hat called “Basque beret”? This denomination comes from Emperor Napoleon III. While he was staying in the Basque Country with the Empress Eugénie, he noticed these berets and wrongly called them “Basque berets”.
And as no one dared to contradict the Monarch, the term imposed itself. In fact, the beret is a particularly appreciated hat in the South-West of France: in Béarn, Gascony and the Basque Country.
Originally knitted in wool, it was mainly worn by shepherds in the Pyrenees. Practical, indestructible, easy to fold or roll up to be stored in a pocket, it was adopted by many armies around the world.
In France, in the 1940s, the beret was in vogue and it was worn in almost all the country. So much so that in Alsace-Lorraine, during the German Occupation, wearing a beret became a symbol of the Resistance and therefore ended up being banned there.
But ironically, the French Militia, this sinister brigade composed of the worst collaborators, and who fought the resistance by the cruellest means, also adopted this typically French headgear.
And yet, the beret has not disappeared. And even this headgear which has meanwhile become a real classic, regularly returns to the fore. Even if is only on the heads Germans…

The wife and I holidayed in France in 2017. A week in Paris, then a week way down South (I'd never been south of Paris or Renne before) to Oleron Saint Marie for friends' wedding. As part of the celebration, the groom organised us a tour of the Laulhere factory, which was fun; I've mentioned that before. The point here is that while in Paris I only saw berets on tourists - most of which were cheap (and cheap-looking) souvenir types - in Oleron, I was delighted to see people actually, really wearing their berets as normal clothing. No more a statement of any sort than the normality of men of a certain age in the North of England wearing flat caps. I'm sure there's also a similar comparison can be made between parts of the US where Western hats are just normal clothing, and areas where they sell to tourists because the "American Cowboy" is such an icon globally. I do remember seeing paddy fields being tended in China, with workers wearing those traditional, conical straw hats which I have to admit I thought were only made for tourists by this point.

 

[Edward]

Aha! Found the following. These images are from when I visited the Laulhere beret factory in 2017. I am aware there are other sources of French Basque berets in France now, though I am given to understand that they are the only original Beret factory left. The factory is not the size once it was, however they still employ quite a lot of folks in the town, producing a wide range of styles both civilian and military, many of the latter under contract to the French military.

This is a board they use to illustrate the process of making a beret:

All beret bodies start out looking like this!:

The beret is first woven, then hot-washed for some time to shrink it to size, then dyed, and thereafter a label and (on some models) a sweatband sewn in. I'd never really thought of it before, but a true beret is woven, shrunk to density, and that's why there's no seam in it.

Woven bodies:

To be shrunk in one of these:

 

[Edward]

Bodies are dyed various colours:

If memory serves, some of these were a military contract:

This evil looking machine has a key role in flattening and shaping:

Orders awaiting distribution:

The factory shop, which sold in excess of two-dozen berets in less than ten minutes when our party descened on it at the end of the tour:

 

[Fern]

@Edward — thanks for these cool posts. The factory tour definitely looks cool and seems to have had a lasting impression on you.

Did you buy any berets while you were there? Keepsakes?