Berets

Readers who have looked at my blog The Beret Project know of my other fascination: the Basque beret.

A hat that actually goes very well together with the marinière; widely adopted by sailors, mariners, yachtsmen & yachtswomen and writers like myself - among others. The beret pictured above is I guess the ultimate combination (or compromise), but I'd rather stick to the authentic merino wool Basque berets as made by Boinas Elosegui, or the Argentinean Basques in merino or cotton by Boinas Bonigor.

The history of the Basque beret goes a long way back, to Noah's arc, accoding to some, but the beret as we know it nowadays originates in the French Béarn (no, not from the Basque Country - that mistake is Napoleon's responsibility). The Basques did take a very strong liking to the beret though (hence Napoleon's confusion) and took the beret with them on their fishing trips and migrations to the North Atlantic and South America.

These days, the beret is an icon for the gaucho's in South America and rapidly re-gaining popularity in Europe - by men and women (it was Marlene Dietrich who caused a scandal in the 1920's when donning such a male hat as the beret in public...). 


And in the U.S. as well, with fashion leaders American Apparel having their own line of berets (made by Parkhurst, Canada), people like Prince and Madonna wearing a beret on stage and the catwalk.