Berets, Anyone?

[GrayEyes]

On the topic of peaked berets, I saw one "in the wild" today. A woman at the supermarket was wearing one.

I was curious about the brand, where she bought it, etc., but I didn't ask.

 

[GrayEyes]

On TV, I saw Spike Lee wearing an orange peaked beret.

 

[Okay]

Out and about at the NGA this cool morning. Wearing my Bordeaux Boneteria Auloronesa. Overhead Neil Dawson’s sculpture called Diamonds.

View attachment 162954

Hi Nico.
Lookin' good.
How big is that Diamonds sculpture, and how is it supported?

Here I am, out walking the dog yesterday. It's getting much warmer now, and soon the first spring flowers, the crocuses, will be poking out of the half frozen ground.

Michael

Edited to say that I had a better look at the photo on s better screen, and I can just make out some cables supporting 'Diamonds'

 

[Okay]

In other beret news.....

I am learning to knit, and researching beret manufacture, in order that I may make berets myself. I expect this project to take some time. My spinner and knitter friend informed me that making berets by hand was typically men's work, (something I've seen Daan say) and that she had seen old photographs of these men knitting berets. They were known for being fast knitters. Sorry all, I haven't got the pictures to show.

I am also researching appropriate knitting machines, I hope to find one I can drag home. There'll be much to learn.

Everyone needs a hobby eh.

Michael

 

[Daan]

In other beret news.....

I am learning to knit, and researching beret manufacture, in order that I may make berets myself. I expect this project to take some time. My spinner and knitter friend informed me that making berets by hand was typically men's work, (something I've seen Daan say) and that she had seen old photographs of these men knitting berets. They were known for being fast knitters. Sorry all, I haven't got the pictures to show.

I am also researching appropriate knitting machines, I hope to find one I can drag home. There'll be much to learn.

Everyone needs a hobby eh.

Michael

Knitting berets was certainly a man's job, its origins lying with lonely shepherds in the Pyrenees of France. When flocks were taken to the high pastures for the summer months, being a shepherd became a very lonely existence. The story goes that shepherds started knitting from the loose wool that was left behind by the sheep in thorny bushes and such, keeping themselves busy and productive at the same time.
Not only did they create woolen beret shaped hats, they also learned how to felt these raw woolen hats by beating the fibers in the mountains streams - thereby creating berets very similar to how we know them today.

The same situation occurred in Les Landes (a province in the south-west of France). These wastelands of Gascony were great level plains covered with stunted bushes and dry heath that turned into marshland with the slightest rainfall. To walk on stilts became the norm for shepherds and anyone having to travel. These shepherds too were known for their knitting of berets, typically while resting on their stilts, balanced by their shepherd's staff.

However, when the manufacturing of berets became more of an economic enterprise, it were women who did the actual knitting; sometimes in a shared space of the factories, often from their own homes (until knitting machines were introduced during the Industrial Revolution).

 

[Fedster]

Super Lujo vs. Elosegui 150 & Ano 1858 vs. Manufacture de Beret

What's your favorite beret?
Could that be the one on my head?
An Elosegui Super Lujo Grande?

The weight, weaving, and felting of the Super Lujo are at the upper end of the quality scale.
The Elosegui headbands are a half inch flat band of wool after folding and bonding resulting in two layers.
Once a Super Lujo adjusts to your head size and after some wear the wool felts more and becomes softer.

But from my experience the ultimate comfort and quality comparison is
The Elosegui 150 versus a Manufacture de Beret.

Since Manufacture de Beret no longer uses the label Boneteria Auloronesa, BA, due to their move to Orthez,
I guess they are now MB.
The MB with the universal headband is always comfortable.
The MB headband is rounded due to the tube where the ribbon runs,
So the headband is not as flat as the Elosegui.
The MB has a better drape than the Elosegui which is stiffer.

The Elosegui 150 with wear becomes equally comfortable.
The weight, weaving, and felting of the wool seems about equal to the MB.
The advantage may be to the 150 because the wool headband does felt a little more than the MB.
Now it seems another contender for best Basque beret would be the Ano 1858 which comes in three sizes.

As I have berets from MB and Elosegui 1858 I will add a couple of thoughts.

Beret with leather headband: my MB with leather headband is *as good as it gets*. The leather is supple and soft, enough that rolling up the beret does not feel terribly different that a beret without a leather headband. In use, the leather headband of my MB feels to the touch (of my bald head) incredibly similar to felt -- I can barely tell the difference. On the other hand, my Elosegui 1858 with leather headband had much stiffer leather (still rollable, but barely). In use the headband feels much closer to the leather headband of a hat (say, and Akubra). I had the leather headband of my Elosegui replaced with one made of softer leather -- and that is still not as comfortable as the MB.

Beret with wool headband: I agree with Bouwerij Jongen that the wool headband of the MB is slightly more comfortable to me that the one of the Elosegui 1858, with the added benefit that no stretching was needed. I would argue that comfort is a subjective metric, but I'd agree that the MB is slightly more and more softly felted than the Elosegui. It is possible that with wear the Elosegui would end up feeling indistinguishable from the MB.

Felt wise I would say there is some variance (at least in the Elosegui): none of my Elosegui 1858 feel the same, with the felt of the smallest (with leather headband) being the stiffest, and the felt of the largest (with wool headband) being the softest, and my MBs being in between.

 

[Daan]

Faithful followers of this forum know about the tension between Béarnais and Basques about the origin of the beret.

As the story goes, the beret "became Basque" due to a false assumption by Napoleon III. Visiting his summer palace in Biarritz (in the French Basque Country) in 1854, he saw so many people wearing a black beret, that he simply assumed it was a 'Basque thing'.
Who'd dare to disagree with an emperor - the name stuck.

The real origin of the béret lies in the Béarn - the province bordering the Basque Country and the Pyrenees. Many Béarnais find it hard to stomach that "their" béret is called Basque, but so far, the fight was fought in newspapers, magazines, on TV, in cartoons and occasionally in bars.

With the rise of regional nationalism everywhere, the Béarn proved not to be immune and two years ago an official petition was made to the Government of the Republic.
I doubt anyone expected a positive outcome for the Béarnais, but in times of Trump, Brexit and Orban - what can really surprise us these days?

The Minister for Regional development, in his wisdom has now decided that from today it is illegal to add the word 'Basque' to any French made beret, ending a long tradition of Béarn made berets carrying labels like 'Vrai Basque', 'Super Basque', etc.
It means the forced end of Laulhère's Basque Authentique models...
It will probably take at least a generation to ban the word 'Basque" completely, in connection to the beret.

Of course, the berets made by Boinas Elósegui are truly Basque - coming from the Spanish Basque town of Tolosa.

 

[Nico]

View attachment 162975


Hi Nico.
Lookin' good.
How big is that Diamonds sculpture, and how is it supported?

Here I am, out walking the dog yesterday. It's getting much warmer now, and soon the first spring flowers, the crocuses, will be poking out of the half frozen ground.

Michael

Edited to say that I had a better look at the photo on s better screen, and I can just make out some cables supporting 'Diamonds'

G'day Michael,

Diamonds is a globe suspended in space – as an outside sculptural piece next to the NGA building. The globe is aluminium extrusion and mesh painted with synthetic polymer automotive paints with stainless steel fittings and cables. It is 450 centimetres in diameter (14 feet 9 inches).

 

[Daan]

The Etchea and Chirola labels have been in production for decades, until abandoned late in the 20th century.

Too good and too beautiful to see these lost forever, South Pacific Berets reinstated these labels, the first two in a series of vintage beret labels.
The standard retail price is at a low $42.50, but now for one week on Special: TWO models for only $60.00! (One week only and as long as stock lasts).

More abandoned vintage labels will follow. I have always felt a great liking for the Rafale label (so well showing the qualities of a beret in bad weather) and the NIEBLA (the classic label for small diameter berets, depicting a happy fellow smoking his pipe while walking in the rain).

Other possible options could be the L'Alpin label, the Berrueta, Altitude or Liberator (the last maybe for a military style beret...).

Anyone with strong feelings for one options or another, I would love to hear - also if you have suggestions for another old, long abandoned label to be brought back to life!
Comment here, or send me a message.

 

[GrayEyes]

I own a MB (from the days when it was still Boneteria Auloronesa), and I have long thought it was a little too puffy for my size 55 head. I wanted the crown to fit just a little smaller.

So tonight I gave my MB a shrink treatment . . . with surprising results.

I sprayed water on it with a spray bottle until it was damp all over, but certainly not soaking. It was probably as wet as it would have been if I had walked in a springtime drizzle for an hour. Then I let it air dry on my head.

After a few hours, the beret was mainly dry and had shrunk a little. But the wool felt denser and was certainly less pliable. How much less pliable? Before, the beret was soft and a little floppy. Now, it was very stiff. In fact, it retained the shape of my head even when I wasn’t wearing it. See the photos. The top one and especially the bottom one illustrate what I mean the best.

To be honest, I don't really mind since it has the shape I wear, and the wool is just as dense and water-resistant as before. And I suspect that it will soften up as it completely dries.

 

[GrayEyes]

And I suspect that it will soften up as it completely dries.

Now that it is completely dry, it is back to being floppy. Maybe not 100% as floppy as before, but very close. And I think it shrank up only a little. It's not obvious, but if you are looking for it, it seems to be there.

 

[crawlinkingsnake]

Sorry, I've tried berets in the past but just don't seem to work for me. I see others wearing them and look just fine. But not I.... guess it takes a certain style, flair, swagger, panashe?

 

[Bouwerij_Jongen]

Vintage labels,

Etchea translate as house.
Etchea is the bedrock principle of Basque culture,
the family home.

Chirola translates as choose it.
What is that about? Daan

My vote for the next labels is the Berruela which looks like a Basque bastide .and
the Liberator with the French, British and American colors

 

[Daan]

Vintage labels,

Etchea translate as house.
Etchea is the bedrock principle of Basque culture,
the family home.

Chirola translates as choose it.
What is that about? Daan

My vote for the next labels is the Berruela which looks like a Basque bastide .and
the Liberator with the French, British and American colors

In Argentine slang 'chirola' means "worthless money", or a coin of 20 centavos. How it came to be a brand name for French made Basque berets, I don't know...

And yes, the Etchea, the traditional Basque family house plays a very important role in Basque culture. These days, the house and its occupants are more typically referred to as 'Baserri'. The traditional term 'Etchea' referred to the house, the estate, it's present occupants and the forefathers (many generations) who lived there. Typically, in small town Basque Country, people refer to the name of the house instead of the family name when talking about local people.

Thanks for your input re. other vintage labels. A few people share your liking of "the Liberator", while the "Rafale" is also popular. To be continued...

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Sorry, I've tried berets in the past but just don't seem to work for me. I see others wearing them and look just fine. But not I.... guess it takes a certain style, flair, swagger, panashe?

This is common for someone not use to wearing a hat it can be really hard.
You feel everyone is looking at you. You just keep on wearing a hat or beret and slowly you learn that people think you are “cool” to. It’s a self conscious thing. We are always worrying about what others are thinking about you when in fact it is your own fear that holds you back. So just put on a beret and step out the door and become cool too. [emoji3][emoji106]

 

[alanfgag]

Noteinstein on the Beach

 

[Daan]

Fear' naught (fēr´nạt`)
1. A fearless person.
2. A stout woolen cloth of great thickness; dreadnaught; also, a warm garment.
3. Official motto of the (British) Royal Tank Regiment

Following the success of the Chyldish Fear Naught berets in wool, I am happy to now introduce the cotton versions of these illustrious berets.

A cooperation between Billy Childish and South Pacific Berets; down to earth, pure cotton berets made for every day wear by workers, artists & artisans.
The berets are fitted with a solid cotton lining and the Chyldish Fear Naught label.

Available in Raven-Black and 3 earthy colours: Earth, Rock and Indigo - Exclusively at South Pacific Berets @ $49.40.

 

[Nico]

I got a little nervous on my last visit to Melbourne. My daughter has taken a liking to my Laulhere XV Rugby beret. It looks better on her than me. Fortunately I got it back.

 

[Okay]

You had better buy that woman a beret!
Michael

 

[Nico]

You had better buy that woman a beret!
Michael

Already got her two. A red Laulhere and black B.A.
Not sure if the Laulhere XV Rugby beret is still available.