Beret

A traditional Basque-style beret (with headband folded in).
Military use of beret (Officer of the French Chasseurs alpins)

A beret (pronounced /ˈbɛreɪ/[1] or /bəˈreɪ/;[2] French: [beˈʁɛ]) (Basque: txapel; and Portuguese/Spanish: boina), is a soft, round, flat-crowned cap, usually of woven or hand-knitted wool or wool felt,[3]or these days often acrylic fiber.

The beret is usually associated with France although it is in fact more specific to the Pyrenees, a region which extends to the Northern Basque Country. It has also been occasionally a traditional or fashionable headgear in the Netherlands and Italy. With precursors extending as far back as the Middle Ages in the Low Countries, and strong claims in the Béarn, the exact origins of the beret remain unknown.

Berets are worn as part of the uniform of many military and police units worldwide, as well as of other organizations.

Contents

Etymology

Beret (earlier, berret) is from the diminutive form *birretum of a latinized Celtic (Gaulish) word birrus or birrum, which was the name of a short coat with a hood. This word is probably a close relative to Old Irish berr 'short', Welsh byr, Breton berr 'short', all from *birro-.[4]

History

Henry VIII wearing a beret-style cap (1509)

Archaeology and art history indicate that beret-style headgear has been worn in the Bronze Age in northern Europe, in ancient Crete and by the Etruscans, as well as by nobility and artists throughout modern European history.[3]

The modern "Basque" beret was originally worn by Basque shepherds in the Pyrenees, a mountain range in southern France and northern Spain. The colors originally varied by region (red in Guipúzcoa, white in Ávala, blue in Vizcaya), but eventally the Basques settled on blue berets, and the people from Navarre adopted red berets as part of their folk costume.[3] The use of black berets then spread through Spain and France, where by the 1920s berets were associated with the working classes.[3]

Wear

The beret fits snugly around the head, and can be "shaped" in a variety of ways – in America and Europe it is commonly worn pushed to one side (local custom usually prescribes which, but there is no universal rule). It can be worn by both men and women.

Military uniform berets feature a headband or sweatband attached to the wool, made either from leather, silk, or cotton ribbon, sometimes with a drawstring allowing the wearer to tighten the hat. The drawstrings are, according to custom, either tied and cut off/tucked in or else left to dangle. The beret is often adorned with a cap badge, either in cloth or metal. Some berets have a piece of buckram or other stiffener in the position where the badge is intended to be worn.

Berets are not often lined, but a few are, usually partially with satin. In military berets, the headband is worn on the outside; military berets often have external sweatbands of leather, pleather or ribbon. The traditional woolen beret (also worn by selected military units, such as the Belgian Chasseurs Ardennais), usually has the "sweatband" folded in. In such a case, these berets have only an additional inch or so of the same woolen material designed to be folded inward for a more snug fit.

Uses

As uniform headgear

Berets are worn as part of the uniform of numerous militaries (see Military beret) and other organizations (see Uniform beret). This use of berets dates back to the 1830s Carlist Wars in Spain.

As revolutionary symbol

One of the most famous photographs of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda was of him wearing a black beret with a red star. Fidel Castro also wore a beret during his insurgency against the Batista government of Cuba.[5] In the 1960s several activist groups adopted the beret.

In 1960's pop culture the 1964 television series The Man from UNCLE featured THRUSH troops wearing berets. In the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde (film) actress Faye Dunaway wore a beret to play the role of outlaw Bonnie Parker.[8]

Other uses

Olentzero, a Basque Christmas figure, wears a beret.

Berets (boinas or chapelas, from Basque txapela) have become the standard headgear of the Castilian gentleman.

In the Basque Country, a commemorative beret is the usual trophy in sport or poetry competitions, including Basque rural sports or the Basque portions of the Tour de France. The Basque word for "champion", txapeldun, literally means "the one in a beret", though the Basque typically use the Spanish term boina to describe the beret.

The beret was once considered the national cap of France in Anglo-Saxon countries and is part of the stereotypical image of the Onion Johnny. It has diminished totally in popularity, except in the south west of France, where it originates. Still considered a matter of French pride, when French people are wearing the national colours in foreign countries, while it is only the distinguishing mark of Aquitaine and Basque people in France. It is also worn by fashionable women as the typical hat for la parisienne. Black is the traditional color. There are only two manufacturers left in France (the world-famous Hoquy family among them), some in the Spanish Basque Country and Navarra. There remain elsewhere a few fly-by-night manufacturers.

The beret is also a stereotyped trademark of film directors, artists (particularly painters), hipsters, intellectuals, Bohemians, and Beatniks of any nationality.

Schoolgirls often wear berets with their school uniforms. When searching for a suitable style of beret to be worn by the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR), the French Chasseurs alpins was rejected as being too big. The RTR selected a model worn by a Girls' School.

Some British comedians have been identified with the beret. Other entertainment figures identified with the beret include Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters, and Fred Berry who played Rerun in What's Happening!! and What's Happening Now!!. It is said that Groucho Marx wore a beret in order to avoid tipping hat-check girls when he went to restaurants and night clubs.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Edition ed.). 1989. 
  2. ↑ "Dictionary.com Unabridged". http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/beret. Retrieved 2007-11-09. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chico, Beverly (2005). "Beret". In Steele, Valerie. Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. 1. Thomson Gale. pp. 149–150. ISBN 0-684-31394-4. 
  4. ↑ Pierre-Yves Lambert, La langue gauloise, éditions errance 1994. p. 188.
  5. ↑ The Hat
  6. ↑ p.119 Ogbar, Jeffrey Ogbanna Green Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity 2004 JHU Press
  7. ↑ Black Berets
  8. ↑ Madonna, Che Guevara's Beret, and Teaching Students How to "Read" Graphics

External links