Berets, Anyone?

[Edward]

Constantly intrigues me how many variations there can be on what looks ostensibly such a simple item of headwear. I retain a soft spot of Laulhere in particular having visited the factory back in 2017, but am also extremely fond of my Billy Chyldish cotton berets - one Fear Naught in the slate blue, and Goat in a Trees in red, burgundy, and green. The green one was worn out to see The Pogues on Saturday. Really enjoy these as Summer options on days when I don't need a brim and want something I can easily sling in a pocket or a bag when I'm indoors.

 

[Leyomi]

The legendary brand MBBB (Manufacture Bayonnaise de Bérets Basques) was founded in 1928 at the Rue Brigadier Muscar in the Saint Esprit district of Bayone - the capital of the Basque Country.
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MBBB soon became a major player in the field of berets, with a large variety of labels, supporting sports events and introducing novel marketing methods for the time; sponsoring sports events (typically road cycling) and offering their own system of 'coins' in different values under the Bérets Milton name.
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The MBBB Milton labels were extremely popular in France and internationally. The company went down during the 1950s.
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Fast forward to 2025: after a local hatter found a truly massive number of old (1940s) MBBB labels stored in a cellar, contact was made with the Bayonne based beret manufacturer Le Béret Français and a decision was made to resurrect the brand - using the original labels and stay true to the style and quality of the original MBBB berets, including the signatory brown satin lining.
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MBBB now stands out as an elegant and authentic brand, where each piece tells a story: that of the artisans who once handcrafted these iconic berets. By focusing on local production, respecting ancestral methods, MBBB has become the standard-bearer of Basque expertise.
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These 10p/28cm universal size berets are now available from South Pacific Berets, all models $58.15.

Bayonne isn't the capital of the basque country, the capital of the autonomous community in Spain is Vitoria Gasteiz but each basque province have their own capital (and many argue about the capital for the whole Euskal Herria, for many Iruña, pamplona is spanish, is the historical one as the capital of the Navarre kingdom ), Bayonne is the capital of the Lapurdi (or Labourd), a old partly basque speaking fief of Navarre and then viscounty of Gascony, some people consider it to be the capital of Iparralde (french part of basque country) but it's not unanimous, espescially because it was not really a heavily basque speaking city (the whole city is "charnègue", local word who mean "mixed") but rather a occitan speaking one

 

[Daan]

Bayonne isn't the capital of the basque country, the capital of the autonomous community in Spain is Vitoria Gasteiz but each basque province have their own capital (and many argue about the capital for the whole Euskal Herria, for many Iruña, pamplona is spanish, is the historical one as the capital of the Navarre kingdom ), Bayonne is the capital of the Lapurdi (or Labourd), a old partly basque speaking fief of Navarre and then viscounty of Gascony, some people consider it to be the capital of Iparralde (french part of basque country) but it's not unanimous, espescially because it was not really a heavily basque speaking city (the whole city is "charnègue", local word who mean "mixed") but rather a occitan speaking one

Yes, I should have written "capital of the French Basque Country", but apart from that, it is a murky business to define truths about a term that has no legal value; formally, there simply is no capital of the French Basque Country, but in the minds of many Basques in Labourd, Basse Navarre, and Soule, Bayonne is that capital without doubt.

While Vitoria-Gasteiz (on the Spanish side) is the capital for the entire Basque Country, Bayonne is recognized as the administrative, cultural, and economic hub of the French Basque region. Consensus on matters of national identity and ownership of heritage and history are of course a great recipe for arguments (and worse)...

In a cultural sense, the Fêtes de Bayonne, are a major annual festival, celebrating Basque traditions with sports, music, parades, and more.

Bayonne houses the excellent museum Musée Basque et de l'histoire de Bayonne (with some very interesting beret related artefacts) and Bayonne features many Basque architectural elements and typical Basque timber-framed houses.

Then of course Bayonne is famous for it's Basque cuisine; piperade, txuleta, veal axoa, chipirons a la plancha and jambon de Bayonne - ask Basque chef Alain Darroze from Bayonne.