Berets, Anyone?

[Daan]

The beret as we know it today has it's origins in the French Béarn, but the beret has been invented many times over and over again. The old Greeks wore hats that resemble berets in a variety of colours, Roman legionnaires wore beret-shaped brown woolen felt caps (all over large parts of present-day Europe and influenced local head gear) and the Macedonians wore the Kausia, again a very similar hat to the present day beret.


Two pictures of a kausia; the ancient Macedonian flat hat which was worn during the Hellenistic period but perhaps even before the time of Alexander the Great

Many more examples of beret-like hats can be found on Sardinia, Crete, in Denmark, Austria and many more places where people kept sheep and needed protection from sun and cold.

Similar for the Svan people in the present-day Republic of Georgia. Surrounded by 3,000–5,000 meter peaks, Svaneti is the highest inhabited area in Europe and the geography ensured the inhabitants of perfect isolation in many ways. The Svans are an ethnic subgroup of the Georgians, generally see themselves as Georgian Orthodox Christians (Christianized in the 4th-6th centuries), but many remnants of old paganism have been maintained (most obvious in symbolism in carving, clothes, etc). The Svans have retained many of their old traditions, including blood revenge. Their families are small, the husband being the head of his family while older women are especially well respected.
One of the old traditions that survived till today is the use of the Svanetian felt hat and, again, the similarities with the beret are numerous:



Both were hats made and further developed by mountain people, shepherds herding their sheep on high mountain pastures, spending weeks and months on end in isolated huts during the nights of the grazing season and keeping themselves occupied with knitting wool. In some ways, the beret as we know it now, is a more developed hat from what the Svan people still use to this day. The hats are completely hand made of felted wool only with the only addition a black string in the shape of a cross, covering the cap. Not a Christian symbol, but from a much older pre-Christian period, symbolizing the connection between humans and the universe (the end of the string is sewn to the side of the cap, representing the owner, while the center of the cross is at the center of the skull).



I got my first Svan felt cap from a friend while working in Georgia and later, found a second specimen while on the other side of the High Caucasus in Chechnya, almost 20 years ago. Moth eaten and over-worn I have been looking for replacements for years and now have finally managed to find a supplier in Georgia. Despite the enormous changes that Georgia has gone through over the last two decades, internet-ordering felt hats made by peasant women living in the high mountains at the other side of the world, still proves to be difficult.
Thanks to incredible postage and Customs costs, I made a one-off order and have some for sale at South Pacific Berets now (and honestly believe you won't find these anywhere else on the web).

[V.C. Brunswick]

I call this one the "My Folks Went to Paris and All I Got Was this Lousy Beret" beret.
thrift store find

[Daan]

I call this one the "My Folks Went to Paris and All I Got Was this Lousy Beret" beret.
thrift store find

Yep, I see what you mean...
Though not as bad as with baseball caps, berets have been used for advertising. Local souvenirs with regional heraldry



or picturesque scenes ,

sport-steam logo's,


motorbike clubs
,
embroidery showing affection for dogs

and even for police uniforms, like this red txapela of the Spanish region of Navarra:



And, as a beret-seller, I can't stay behind, of course. Now at South Pacific Berets these embroidered rugby berets, in support of the Rugby World Cup 2011 (right now, here in in NZ). And best, all profits of the sales go to Women's Refuge (who need it much, unfortunately, during the RWC...).

[V.C. Brunswick]

My beret appears to be the real deal because the label inside is in French.

Ricki Mode
03/05
90% Laine
10% Polyamide
Taille Unique 57 CM

[Daan]

My beret appears to be the real deal because the label inside is in French.

I wish it was that simple. I met with Hills Hats the other week, a well established hat manufacturer in NZ, and was shocked by their revelation that their "New Zealand made" berets are actually made in Pakistan! Supposedly, if 50% of the labour is done in another country, one can legally state that the product is made in that country. E.g. a woolen beret is made in Pakistan or China and the lining, label and headband are sewn in in New Zealand (or France, the US, whatever) and the label says made in NZ.
If the additional labour is less than 50%, all the label has to state is "Finished in NZ" (France, the US, etc). Call me naive, but I found this quite a shock.
Checking whether this is a world wide practice, I contacted a French beret manufacturer who confirmed this practice. Many French berets that say "Made in France" come from China (and that is especially valid for the souvenir type berets as pictured in the previous post; the embroidery gets done in France).
But not to worry too much: berets made by established manufacturers like Boinas Elosegui, Blancq-Olibet, TONAK, A. de Setti and Bonigor are without any doubt 100% made in the respective countries!

[PADDY]

A marvellous thread with loads of information I didn't even know about regarding berets!!

[Daan]

Over the last weeks, I have had a few people asking me about "original Basque berets"; who makes them, where and most of all, which berets are "real Basque berets".
To start with the latter, although the beret (as we know it now) has it's origin in France, there is nothing Basque about it. The main centers of the French beret industry were/are in the Béarn (mainly in the towns of Nay and Oloron St Marie), bordering the (French) Basque provinces. The term 'Basque Beret' is the result of a mistake by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte; seeing so many Basques wearing a beret, he assumed the beret was Basque and the term stayed.
After gaining popularity in Spain, especially during the Carlist Wars and among the Basques, Antonio Elósegui founded beret factory La Casualidad in Tolosa, in the Spanish Basque Country. Since the closure in 1992 of the "other" famous Spanish beret manufacturer La Encartada in Bilbao, Boinas Elósegui is now the only beret manufacturer in the Basque Country.

So far for Basque origins...
At present there is a small number of traditional beret manufacturers left, well spread across the globe. The oldest one is the French Blancq-Olibet company (founded in 1819), manufacturer of the Bakarra, PÉBÉO, Vrai Basque and Fandango labels, among others.
Then there is BEATEX-Laulhère. Laulhère was founded in 1840, created BEATEX in 1990 which absorbed Beighau in 1996.
Blancq-Olibet and Laulhère-BEATEX are the only French manufacturers left (out of some 40 factories during the 1940's-50's).

The only Spanish beret manufacturer left is the above mentioned Boinas Elósegui.

Then there are two traditional beret manufacturers (of Basque origin) in South America: Bonigor SA in Buenos Aires, Argentina (manufacturer of the labels Espinosa and Tolosa Tupida) and the Fabrica Nacional de Sombreros in Montevideo, Uruguay (Castilla label).
There are other beret manufacturers in South America (in Peru, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia), but non that can meet have the traditions, history and skills of the factories mentioned above.

Czech (or previously Czechoslovak) factory TONAK (and previously FEZCO) has a long history of beret-making as well, dating back to 1828 when Wolf Fürth began the froduction of fezzes in Strakonice. Berets have a long and strong history in the Czech Republic; these days resulting in three models (for men; they make a large range of womens berets as well): the traditional Radiovka, the Superbasques and the Service Star.

Then there is the Italian manufacturer A. de Setti from Carpi, who have been making berets for well over 75 years, most notably the Basco Roma and Francia.

Well, there are many more beret manufacturers; mainly in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (suppliers to many armies of the world), China, Australia, Romania, Germany and likely many other countries. But, the above mentioned factories are, to the best of my knowledge, the only ones that would classify as a "traditional beret manufacturer".

[coble]

The beret as we know it today has it's origins in the French Béarn, but the beret has been invented many times over and over again. The old Greeks wore hats that resemble berets in a variety of colours, Roman legionnaires wore beret-shaped brown woolen felt caps (all over large parts of present-day Europe and influenced local head gear) and the Macedonians wore the Kausia, again a very similar hat to the present day beret.


Two pictures of a kausia; the ancient Macedonian flat hat which was worn during the Hellenistic period but perhaps even before the time of Alexander the Great

Many more examples of beret-like hats can be found on Sardinia, Crete, in Denmark, Austria and many more places where people kept sheep and needed protection from sun and cold.

Similar for the Svan people in the present-day Republic of Georgia. Surrounded by 3,000–5,000 meter peaks, Svaneti is the highest inhabited area in Europe and the geography ensured the inhabitants of perfect isolation in many ways. The Svans are an ethnic subgroup of the Georgians, generally see themselves as Georgian Orthodox Christians (Christianized in the 4th-6th centuries), but many remnants of old paganism have been maintained (most obvious in symbolism in carving, clothes, etc). The Svans have retained many of their old traditions, including blood revenge. Their families are small, the husband being the head of his family while older women are especially well respected.
One of the old traditions that survived till today is the use of the Svanetian felt hat and, again, the similarities with the beret are numerous:



Both were hats made and further developed by mountain people, shepherds herding their sheep on high mountain pastures, spending weeks and months on end in isolated huts during the nights of the grazing season and keeping themselves occupied with knitting wool. In some ways, the beret as we know it now, is a more developed hat from what the Svan people still use to this day. The hats are completely hand made of felted wool only with the only addition a black string in the shape of a cross, covering the cap. Not a Christian symbol, but from a much older pre-Christian period, symbolizing the connection between humans and the universe (the end of the string is sewn to the side of the cap, representing the owner, while the center of the cross is at the center of the skull).



I got my first Svan felt cap from a friend while working in Georgia and later, found a second specimen while on the other side of the High Caucasus in Chechnya, almost 20 years ago. Moth eaten and over-worn I have been looking for replacements for years and now have finally managed to find a supplier in Georgia. Despite the enormous changes that Georgia has gone through over the last two decades, internet-ordering felt hats made by peasant women living in the high mountains at the other side of the world, still proves to be difficult.
Thanks to incredible postage and Customs costs, I made a one-off order and have some for sale at South Pacific Berets now (and honestly believe you won't find these anywhere else on the web).

where would i be able to buy a svan cap, i really like them, would be great for winter time?

[Daan]

where would i be able to buy a svan cap, i really like them, would be great for winter time?

I am confident in saying that the only place outside Georgia is through South Pacific Berets, click here.

[Daan]

Similar to the Svanetian felt hat and the beret is the qeleshe (or 'plis'), the felted woollen hat worn by Albanian mountain people.



A qeleshe is a traditional skull cap, worn by men throughout Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and in the Arbëresh villages in Italy.



The shape of the hat changes with the region: in northern Albania, the cone is shorter, whereas in southern Albania it's shape is taller, more conical, especially in the Gjirokastër and Vlorë regions. The men of the Myzeqe low plains region wear the smaller, northern style, cap with plies.


Avdo Mededovich, the Yugoslav Homer

In some areas of southern Albania a small protrusion comes out of the cap. The hat is made from one single piece of felted wool, usually white, that is molded to the shape of the head. Sometimes the qeleshe is worn in combination with a bandana tied around the head.

The name qeleshe comes from the Albanian word for wool: lesh.



Presently, I have a small number of traditional northern Albanian style qeleshes in stock (@ $21.50).