Four pages of a French magazine on the virtues of the beret. It is the headgear never out of fashion. Never out of use. Sometimes it is incorrectly referred to as the beret Basque. That's because it became popular in the early part of the century at Biarritz. It comes from the Bearn, nearby, and Irish people going to Lourdes are in the area. In the place of its origin it is described as being round as a goat cheese and black as a pot. You could exaggerate its history. This article claims that on the portal of the Gothic church at Bellocq-en-Bearn three of the figures are wearing what is undoubtedly a beret.
Anyway there is agreement that it all started with a shepherd on the nearby mountains knitting a round head-covering for himself from the wool of his own sheep, then washing it and pounding or beating it into a good felt protection against rain and sun. In 1810, two men from Oloron in the area got the idea of industrialising the process (still in the Bearn area) and then in 1829 another enterprising person did the same, in nearby Nay. It was all obviously good business. Even in the last century, then, it seems to have become popular, too, with armies. And today we have green and red bereted soldiers and the blue of the United Nations. Also, presumably from long ago, the famous French Chasseurs Alpins. For soldiers it has great advantages: strong, supple and can fit all heads. In the world of fashion it had its day. Marlene Dietrich wore berets; this article says the Prince of Wales wore it early in the century. And certainly the American contingent to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin wore it. But foreign competition became too much for the many French enterprises which had entered this market. Today the original two at Oloron and Nay are still going well, producing a million berets a year between them.
And at one of them, Nay, there is a museum of the beret, with ancient machinery on show and the illustrated history of the industry. You can tell the real thing from the import, says this article: in the case of the import you can see the daylight through it. Not so with the real thing. This should, of course, have a leather band around the inside and be lined with satin. The best ones anyway. Old men, it is said, take off their berets only when going to bed. There is a beret-throwing competition each September in Oloron. It can be worn in so many ways, pulled down over your eyes, tilted over one ear, rakishly, and so on.
Now, we make a splendid item of headgear, too: the soft tweed hat. Does it sell in millions? Not, obviously, to armies, but the best of outdoor wear for the rest of us.