1983 - Another Great Year for Berets!

Mat van Polonen, Fitter at the Christchurch (NZ) Gasworks, 1983

Film "El Sur", 1983

The former village of Vegamian in Spain, submerged by a hydro-lake. October, 1983

Robert de Niro (R) receives an award from french actress Michele Morgan (C) and french writer Jean-Claude Carriere (L), on May 07, 1983 during the Cannes International Film Festiva

Amber Door County, Wisconsin, March 1983

1982 - Another Great Year for Berets!

Kevin Keegan sports a Basque beret as he jokes with Sir Trevor Brooking while on England duty at the 1982 World Cup in Bilbao

World Cup Finals. Bilbao, Spain. June 1982

Fine Art Print of Andrea in New York, 1982 by Max Ferguson

Lille, France. Retired military. 1982.

"Le gendarme et les gendarmettes', 1982

Boinas Elósegui Face Masks

As cases of COVID-19 ballooned last month, people in Europe and North America scrambled to get their hands on surgical masks to protect themselves. Meanwhile, health officials jumped in to discourage them, worried about the limited supply of masks for health care personnel.

“Seriously people-STOP BUYING MASKS!” began a 29 February tweet from U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. The World Health Organization and U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have both said that only people with COVID-19 symptoms and those caring for them should wear masks.

The worldwide shortage of masks has led to drastic measures. Earlier today the Government of the Autonomous Basque Region in Spain has ordered beret manufacturer Boinas Elósegui to immediately halt the complete production of berets and focus on manufacturing face masks instead.

The cost per mask is relatively high, but individual masks can be dry-cleaned up to 50 times in their lifespan, while the merino fibers are a natural antiseptic.

Specifically for the Basque market, Elósegui developed a face mask with txortena (or cabillou).

When the production of berets can be resumed is an unknown; “we expect to produce face masks only till at least the end of this year”, Elósegui spokesman Tonto Gilipollas said.

1981- Another Great Year for Berets!

Aaron Copland with beret, 1981

Eve Arnold: Detroit, Michigan. Biker belonging to gang 'Satan's Sidekicks'. 1981

Rural Sicilian, Italy, August 1981

Madrid, Spain. 23 February, 1981

 Milan, Italy. Carnival. 1981

SPECIAL IN TIMES OF CORONA VIRUS!

In these dire times of quarantine, isolation and lock-downs one not only needs a good Reality Shield, but also some good economic gain - berets at a discount of at least 45% for example.

At South Pacific Berets we are pretty much on hold at present. New Zealand being in lock-down and NZ Post having stopped services for the time being, we have looked mainly at taking stock and working on the storage and website. 

Doing the stock take, it was a pleasant surprise to find some hidden treasure that was not on the list - all on SPECIAL this week. The only catch is that the standard target delivery times have to be forgotten, as postal services around the globe struggle with deliveries at present. Your purchase will arrive, but no guarantee as to when.

One week only, over 45% off as long as stock lasts! (From 1 April, NZ Post will implement a postage surcharge; all berets ordered prior will be send at the usual fare).

1980- Another Great Year for Berets!

Wolf Vostell, 1980 in Spain

Viktor Kolář, Ostrava, Czechoslovakia 1980.

Aldo Luongo, "Big Smile and Green Suit", 1980, Mixed Media on Canvas

Amber Door County, Wisconsin, March 1980

Nino Manfredi in "Cafe-Express", 1980

Pieter Quast

Pieter Quast: Kneeling Man with Beret

Pieter Jansz. Quast (1605 or '06 – buried 29 May 1647) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman, mostly producing small social genre paintings, ranging from elegant merry companies to guardroom scenes and (most numerous) groups of peasants, in a variety of styles which can be related to those of leading artists in these genres, but with personal aspects in the colouring and style. 

Pieter Quast - Beggar with girl in open field

They "are heavily and powerfully rendered in warm shades of brown, set off by strong local colouring in the principal figures. 

Pieter Quast - 5 Senses: Smell

His successful peasant scenes are characterized by the use of strong chiaroscuro and a gentle, harmonious palette. The caricatural quality of Quast’s peasants recalls the work of his fellow-resident of The Hague, Adriaen van de Venne, but Quast’s looser style and many of his individual types are closer to the paintings of Adriaen Brouwer, as well as of Adriaen van Ostade, to whom Quast’s best work has sometimes been ascribed".

Saint Paulin

Saint Paulin is a creamy, mild, semi-soft French cheese made from pasteurized cow's milk, originally made by Trappist monks.  

It is a buttery cheese, but firm enough for slicing. Saint Paulin is similar to Havarti and Esrom and is suited to serving as a table or dessert cheese; it is often served with fruit and light wine. Genuine Saint Paulin has an edible yellow-orange rind. It is ripened in a round loaf with slightly protruding sides and matures in about four weeks.

Nesten

Rik Delneste (1946 - 2018), a.k.a. Nesten, was a Flemish cartoonist who specialized in drawing caricatures of cyclists and other famous people.  

He set up the Museum of the Laugh, where his work is exhibited. Nesten painted murals, painted on cars and many other “canvasses”. The paintings of Nesten are a well-known often seen on the windows of cafes, especially in the south of West Flanders.

Together with Donaat Deriemaeker he presented the Summer in Nesten program in the mid-90s.

He died of cancer on October 13, 2018.

Berets in Times of Corona Virus (COVID-19)

German police in München, 18 March, telling people to spread, before lockdown

Inspection of terminal 4 at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Spain's largest international airport

 

Willem Vermandere

Willem Vermandere (1940 in Lauwe, Belgium) is a Belgian singer, Flemish cabaret artist, writer, sculptor, guitarist and painter. His songs are written and sung in the dialect of the South of West-Flanders in Belgium.

Vermandere studied Religion at Ghent and has been a teacher at Nieuwpoort. Although he is most known for his music, Vermandere is more active as a sculptor. His poetic repertoire expresses criticism on society and his performances are a mixture of seriousness, sadness and fun

In 1993 Vermandere wrote the song "Bange Blanke Man" ("Frightened White Man"), a song criticizing racism and xenophobia in a multicultural society. When performing at the Grand Place in Brussels in 1992, Vermandere was physically assaulted by members of the far-right party Vlaams Blok and became a subject of hate mail.

In 2000 he was bestowed with the title of honorary citizen of Veurne, where he currently lives in the suburb of Steenkerke. In 2009 the Flemish ‘Radio 2’ station nominated him as a member of the Gallery of Honour.

Dank Frans