Beards & Berets (3)

Since my first post here on The Beret Project on beards, 6 years ago, my folder 'Beret Beard Pics' has filled to the brim. A small selection of the best ones here:

Beards & Berets (2)

Since my first post here on The Beret Project on beards, 6 years ago, my folder 'Beret Beard Pics' has filled to the brim. A small selection of the best ones here:

Beards & Berets

Since my first post here on The Beret Project on beards, 6 years ago, my folder 'Beret Beard Pics' has filled to the brim. A small selection of the best ones here:

High Mountain Warfare School - Chasseurs Alpin

Many more Tartes Alpin in this short film, following students of the Chasseurs Alpin at the High Mountain Warfare School. 

Jeremy K. Knight

Archaeologist Jeremy K. Knight is a former Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Cadw and what is now English Heritage. He has excavated on various Roman and Medieval sites, particularly Montgomery Castle. Author of around 100 articles, excavation reports and official guidebooks and five books- The End of Antiquity: Archaeology, Society and Religion in Western Europe 235-700 (1999, second edition 2007); Roman France: An Archaeological Field Guide ( 2001): Civil War and Restoration in Monmouthshire ( 2005) Usk: :Castle, Priory and Town (2010-editor) and South Wales from the Romans to the Normans: Christianity, Literacy and. Lordship (2013), Currently engaged on a book on the town and ironworks of Blaenavon. Recipient of Festschrift- The Medieval Castle in Ireland and Wales.

80 years of the Alpine Military School

Plenty of "Tartes Alpin" in this video, celebrating 80 years of the Alpine Military School.

Created in 1932, the EMHM celebrated its 80th birthday in July, 2012. The program included activities in Chamonix; an exhibition at the Alpine Museum; an international meeting of military mountain-warfare academies; an integration ceremony in the 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade and the change of command of the corps.

Autumn Inspiration?

NEW: Exposición Tupidas Roja!

Big news from Spain, by popular request: the Exposición Tupidas Roja!

Berets, or "Txapelas", in bright red are a Basque trademark. During the dark times of the Carlist Wars, the red txapela was worn by the ultra-conservative catholic Carlists, but over time, the red txapela has been adopted by Basques (and Spanish) of all political and religious backgrounds as a beret to wear during the many Basque and Spanish festivals.



So strongly do the Basques associate with the red txapela that it is even part of the national police (Erzaintza) uniform.

South Pacific Berets stocks two models: the standard 12.5 (or 291mm diameter) and the large 13.5 (or 314mm Plato Grande). Both carry the Elósegui Tupida label; berets of tightly knit Australian merino wool ('tupida' meaning 'tight', 'dense' in Spanish); impermeable and of a fantastic soft and comfortable quality.

Satan Met A Lady

Detective Ted Shayne (Warren William) is a happy-go-lucky man about town and ladies man who also happens to be a crack detective, and gets run out of town by a group of city fathers, so he returns to San Marino to his former partner Ames (Porter Hall), bringing with him some high-paying clients. 

When lovely blonde Valerie Purvis (Bette Davis) hires Shayne to track down Mme. Barabbas (Alison Skipworth) but doesn't tell him why, Shayne complies and is naturally curious particularly because Purvis pays a lot of money for the detecting job.

Marion “Joe” Carstairs - Beret Wearer Extraordinaire

Born in 1900 in London, Marion “Joe” Carstairs was a cigar-smoking, cross-dressing, motorboat-racing lesbian, who had tumultuous affairs with leading actresses, including Tallulah Bankhead, Mabel Mercer and Marlene Dietrich.

With her close-cropped hair and exquisitely tailored Savile Row suits, Carstairs was delighted when anyone actually mistook her for a man. An heir to the Standard Oil fortune, she abandoned civilization at the age of 34 to become the self-appointed ruler of a 9-mile-by-4-mile island in the Bahamas. There she lived for more than 40 years, attended by a kaleidoscopic parade of beautiful women, avid sports and fishing enthusiasts, hearty partygoers -- and a small leather doll named Lord Tod Wadley, whom she treated as her best friend and lifelong companion.

In 1925, after inheriting the bulk of her fortune from the much-contested estates of her mother and maternal grandmother, Carstairs embarked on a short-lived competitive motorboat racing career. She won the Duke of York’s Trophy in 1926 -- Britain’s premier motorboat racing event -- and was determined to take the Harmsworth Trophy, then the most prestigious motorboat prize in the world. Carstairs spent an estimated half-million dollars building custom-designed boats and training for this event, but lost in three consecutive attempts: 1928, 1929 and 1930.

In 1933, facing tax problems in Britain and the United States, Carstairs bought the island of Whale Cay, in the West Indies, for $40,000. She built a Spanish villa, put up a power plant, radio station and schoolhouse, and even constructed a museum that was essentially a shrine to her own accomplishments and interests.

Carstairs never made any attempt to hide her sexual orientation. On her island she kept an ever-shifting succession of lovers well into her 70s. Her physical standards were as exacting as those of any aging male millionaire auditioning potential mistresses: partners needed to be young and were invariably drop-dead gorgeous. Carstairs took care to retain a photograph of each woman she bedded but none was allowed to spend the night with her.

Despite her own promiscuity, Carstairs forbade sex outside of marriage on her island and punished adulterers by banishing them from the settlement. But she was generous in many ways to her employees, setting up a health-care fund and selling them, at cost, food and provisions imported from the mainland.

Longmire

Longmire is a US crime drama television series The series was developed by John Coveny and Hunt Baldwin, and is based on the "Walt Longmire Mysteries" series of mystery novels written by best-selling author Craig Johnson.

The show centres on Walt Longmire, a Wyoming county sheriff who returns to work after his wife's death. Assisted by his friends and his daughter, Longmire investigates major crimes within his jurisdiction, while campaigning for re-election against one of his own deputies.

In episode 3, ‘Death Came In Like Thunder’, Walt and the team explore Absaroka’s Basque community when a shepherd and his dog are found dead.

The Bellboys of Les Airelles

A fairy tale castle in the heart of the most glamorous French ski resorts, Courchevel. The Hotel Les Airelles is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful alpine Hotels in the world. 

Les Airelles is among the 16 'Palaces of France' and figures on the primary list of the Leading Hotels of the World.

It is also the only hotel I know of that dresses its bellboys in Tarte Alpins with white cotton covers.

Truffle Hunting in Eagle, Idaho

In addition to years of patience, truffles also take a specially trained nose to locate — one of the canine variety.

Paul Beckman planted a 13-acre orchard in 2007 to produce truffles in Eagle. He planted five different varieties, but so far just one kind has produced. In February 2012, a dog trained to locate the truffles found Italian Bianchetto truffles in the orchard, which Beckman learned from members of the truffle community was the first time the variety had been found in the western hemisphere.

Last year, five truffles were sniffed out in Beckman’s orchard and this year his two Australian shepherds have found about 50.

At the Paris Fashion Show 2015

Fashion royalty Salma Hayek, the Academy Award-nominated wife of the luxury heir François-Henri Pinault (see yesterday's post), led the front row pack at Saint Laurent, the highlight of the Paris menswear shows on Sunday. 

The Saint Laurent collection posed a serious question: Has controversial designer Hedi Slimane, who everyone loves to hate and hates to love, finally been vindicated? If the mantra "thin is in" applied to previous Saint Laurent shows, this new collection might be called "thinner is inner."

Extra-uber-skinny retro pants stood out in a collection that featured starved-looking women as well as men.

Slimane carried on his '70s musing in suits with peaked lapels, winklepicker shoes, glam-rock fur "fun" coats and punk rock leopard-print sweaters with skinny black jeans that might have been worn by Sex Pistols star John Lydon.

Nothing in this collection seemed particularly different from previous seasons. That is, apart from the occasional beret.

Salma Hayek's UN-blue Beret

Salma Hayek Pinault (1966) is a Mexican and American film actress, director, and producer. She began her career in Mexico starring in the telenovela Teresa and went on to star in the film El Callejón de los Milagros (Miracle Alley) for which she was nominated for an Ariel Award. In 1991. 

Hayek moved to Hollywood and came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as Desperado (1995), Dogma (1999), and Wild Wild West (1999).