Black Panther Inspired Fashion

These pictures come from this blog.

An interesting photo shoot of fashion inspired by the Black Panthers. 

Looking great, and I like the fact the model wears a Basque beret (with cabiliou). 

Justin Bridou

Justin Bridou is a French household name for cured meats and sausages. It is a subsidiary of the Spanish Campofrio Food Group, itself owned by the Chinese group Shuanghui.

The brand was created in 1978 as one of the Aosta group, itself owned by the American multinational Smithfield Foods. We’re talking big multinational corporations here. In May 2013, the Chinese Shuanghui International Holdings bought Aosta for $ 7.1 billion.

Jean Feppon, resident of Rumilly; located in the Haute-Savoie gave his image Justin Bridou in 1978. 

The fictional character Justin Bridou is the stereotype Frencman: moustache, sweater and beret.

Magazine Covers

Gauchos from Chile

Some beautiful Chilean gaucho con boina pictures found on the travel blog of Linn:

Radical Brown Berets

Not all girl scouts are concerned with peddling shortbread cookies. There’s one troop of young girls in Oakland that discusses matters of racial inequality and wear brown berets in an homage to radical civil rights groups.

The girls, ages 8-12, are part of the “Radical Brownies,”an edgier, younger version of the Girl Scouts, where girls earn badges for completing workshops on social protests, and a beauty workshop that celebrate racial diversity.

Radical Brownies is dedicated to providing young girls of color relevant life experiences.

Manfred J. Nittbaur

German artist Manfred J. Nittbaur was born in  Wertingen, 1949. Between 1972 and 1976 he studied painting and sculpturing at the Academy of Fine Arts in München.

Since then Nittbaur worked as an independent artist with many exhibitions within Germany and abroad.

His works encompass a broad range of materials and techniques; portrait and landscape painting, sculptures in bronze and steel, glass painting and the making of fountains.

Benches

It is quite amazing how many photographs I found of men wearing a beret..., sitting on a bench.

It seems for many photographers irresistible to picture a seated boinero in the park or at the sea side.

And they come in all shapes and sorts; the fashionable gentleman in Paris, the abuelo in the Spanish Basque Country, 

awake and asleep...

Carl Einstein

Carl Einstein (1885 – 1940), born Karl Einstein, was an influential German Jewish writer, art historian, anarchist and critic. He was a nephew to the physicist Albert Einstein.

Regarded as one of the first critics to appreciate the development of Cubism, as well as for his work on African art and influence on the European avant-garde, Einstein was a friend and colleague of such figures as George Grosz, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. His work combined many strands of both political and aesthetic discourse into his writings, addressing both the developing aesthetic of modern art and the political situation in Europe.

Einstein's involvement in social and political life was characterized by communist sympathies and anarchist views. A target of the German right wing during the interwar Weimar period, Einstein left Germany for France in 1928, a half-decade ahead of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, later taking part in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the anti-Francisco Franco anarcho-syndicalists during the 1930s.

Trapped in southern France following Nazi Germany's defeat of the French Third Republic, Einstein took his own life by jumping from a bridge on 5 July 1940.

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin has featured on The Beret Project before (here and here), but where he wore a beret as part of his role as Monsieur Verdoux, here we see him wearing a beret of 'free choice', while in Biarritz, August 1931.

 Accompanied by a beret wearing Basque in Biarritz, 1931;

and here in the company of faithful beret wearer Groucho Marx, later in life. 

FDNY - Green Berets

The 14th Battalion of the FDNY, Engine 60, Tower Ladder 17 is located at 341 East 143 Street in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx 6th Division.

On St. Patrick's Day in 1970, members of Engine 60, Ladder 17, and the 14th Battalion donned green berets hand knitted by Mrs. Julia Browne, mother-in-law of Willie Cottrell (L-17). 

Although the members were not allowed to wear the berets during the parade that year, they donned them afterwards, and distinguished themselves as men from this historic firehouse. In 1974, the platoon entered the parade as a maverick unit, and marched up 5th Avenue wearing the green. 

Acting Fire Commissioner Stephen J. Murphy gave permission for a Green Beret Platoon, and the Green Berets made their first official appearance. On March 17th, 1977.

Lacombe Lucien

Lacombe Lucien is a 1974 French war drama film about a teenage boy during the German occupation of France in World War II. It is based in part on director Louis Malle's own experiences.

In 1944 Lucien Lacombe, a 17 year old peasant living in the Lot region of south-western France, is rejected by the French Resistance. Instead, pro-German collaborators obtain information from him about a resistance leader and recruit him into the "Milice Francaise", a fascist group that hunts down Resistance fighters.

Lacombe enjoys his new power and position, but falls in love with France Horn, a French-born Jewish girl who lives in seclusion with her father, Albert, a tailor, and her paternal grandmother, Bella, who live in fear of deportation. Forcing himself upon the girl, Lacombe becomes protective of those very people targeted by his superiors. The events take place in June 1944 during the Normandy landing by the Allies. Lucien, while protecting France to the end, knows that he is aligned with the wrong side, for which he will pay with his life. There is no visual depiction of his death by Resistance firing squad, just a terse final statement to that effect.

Originally, the script was entitled Le faucon ("The Falcon") and was supposed to be set in present-day Mexico. However, Malle was not allowed to shoot in Mexico (nor in Chile), so he was forced to rewrite the script, giving it a wartime French setting. The script was then retitled Le milicien.

Louis Malle's film was daring for its time for suggesting that not every member of the French public was a member of the Resistance; that indeed, many were willing accomplices to the Vichy government, and the sting of the film remains to this day.

Red for Men

 Who ever thought red berets are not for men, eh?