Prince's Raspberry Beret

1 2 1 2 3 

Yeah 

I was working part time in a five-and-dime 
My boss was Mr. McGee 
He told me several times that he didn't like my kind 
'Cause I was a bit 2 leisurely 
Seems that I was busy doing something close 2 nothing 
But different than the day before 
That's when I saw her, Ooh, I saw her 
She walked in through the out door, out door 

She wore a 
Raspberry beret 
The kind U find in a second hand store 
Raspberry beret And if it was warm she wouldn't wear much more 
Raspberry beret 
I think I love her 

Built like she was 
She had the nerve 2 ask me 
If I planned 2 do her any harm 
So, look here 
I put her on the back of my bike 
And-a we went riding 
Down by old man Johnson's farm 

I said now, overcast days never turned me on 
But something about the clouds and her mixed 

She wasn't 2 bright But I could tell when she kissed me 
She knew how 2 get her kicks 

She wore a 
Raspberry beret 
The kind U find in a second hand store 
Raspberry beret 
And if it was warm she wouldn't wear much more 
Raspberry beret 
I think I love her 

The rain sounds so cool when it hits the barn roof And the horses wonder who U are 
Thunder drowns out what the lightning sees 
U feel like a movie star 

Listen 
They say the first time ain't the greatest 
But I tell ya 
If I had the chance 2 do it all again 
I wouldn't change a stroke 
'Cause baby I'm the most 
With a girl as fine as she was then 

(Raspberry beret) 
The kind U find (The kind U find) 
The kind U find (In a second hand store) 
Oh no no 
(Raspberry beret) 
(And if it was warm) 
Where have all the raspberry women gone? (She wouldn't wear much more) 
Yeah (Raspberry beret) 
I think I... I think I... I think I love her 

(Raspberry beret) 
No No No 
No No No (The kind U find) 
(In a second hand store) 
(Raspberry beret) 
Tell me 
Where have all the raspberry women gone? (And if it was warm she) 
(Wouldn't wear much more) (Raspberry beret) 
I think I love...

Song written and produced by Prince

KANGOL

Kangol is a bit of a funny one… They are, or were, British made for a start and even the civilian berets very much resemble the military ones, with a small diameter, the leather or synthetic headband with string, ventilation holes in the side and the absence of the central "stalk" on most models.

These days, Kangol is back big time, thanks to the adoption by American rapper LL Cool J, but there is quite a history before this British brand was re-discovered in the US.

 

Kangol was founded in 1938 by Jakob (Jacques) Spreiregen in Cleator, Cumbria. The name was formed from a combination of letters; K from silk or knitted, ANG from angora and OL from wool – Kangol had a better sound to it than Olangk.

But let's first have a look at Jakob Spreiregen: Jakob was born in Warsaw of Jewish parents in 1893. Before WW1 Jakob flees the Tsarist regime (ruling Warsaw at the time) and heads to France where he changes his name to Jacques Henry Sergene. From France he makes it across the Channel to England and joins the army there. Serving with the Medical Corps during the war he soon had to return to France.

Back in England, after the war, he finds himself a job importing Basque berets, as no one in Britain makes these. In 1938 he takes off with his own brand, Kangol. 

The pre-WW2 years are difficult for Kangol, trading at a loss due to the heavy investment for beret making machines. It takes till 1942, with General Bernard Montgomery leading the beret fashion charge, that the beret quickly rises in popularity and rapidly becomes the must-have item of late WW2.  

With the rise of poverty following WW2, Jakob creates the no frills utility beret, which is an instant success with the people.

During and after the war, Kangol berets were the height of fashion. In the 1960s, designers Mary Quant and Pierre Cardin worked with the company, whose products graced the heads of the rich and famous, including the Beatles, golf player Arnold Palmer and later Princess Diana. The company also supplied uniformed organizations such as the Scout Association.

In the 1980s Kangol berets entered a new phase of fashion history with their adoption by members of the hip-hop community, such as Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC and LL Cool J. The release of more consciously stylish products in the 1990s such as the furgora (angora-wool mix) Spitfire, was helped by its presence upon the head of actor Samuel L. Jackson in 1997. 

Kangol has been owned by Sports World since 2006, when they acquired the brand from private equity fund August Equity Trust. Licenses to manufacture and sell Kangol apparel have been sold to many different companies including D2 and Topshop. The global rights to Kangol hats have been held by American hatmakers Bollman Headwear since 2002.

It was announced in February 2009 that Bollman were reviewing their worldwide operations, putting 33 jobs and the future of the Kangol head office in Cleator in doubt. On 6 April 2009, it was announced that the original factory would be converted to a warehouse and only 7 employees now remain employed at the company's original site. However, hats will continue to be made at their sites in Eastern Europe and the United States.

 

Radio Prague Reports:

The “radiovka” beret, known for its little antenna-like tassel on top may not exactly be the height of fashion but the beret does have a long tradition in the Bohemian and Moravian countryside, especially among the older generation. Though most popular in the ’60s or ’70s, you’re still likely to see the beret worn by some even today. Ondrej Stanek, a young Czech artist now exhibiting in Brno, decided to use the “radiovka” for inspiration in a new art installation. Namely, he has developed a series of cycling helmets in the classic “radiovka” shape.

150 Years Boinas Elosegui

David Greenman sent me this link, a video (in Spanish) of the 150 years celebration of Boinas Elosegui: http://www.eitb.com/videos/detalle/36296/las-boinas-elosegui-cumplen-150-anos/ 

  

Boinas Elósegui was founded in 1858 by Antonio Elósegui, along the banks of the river Oria in Tolosa (Spain) and named La Casualidad. At this time the production was not more than some 50 berets per day, the entire process carried out by hand.

By 1915, 3500 berets were produced by a staff of 200 operators and sold all over Spain, South America, Cuba, the Philippines, the United States and Europe.

As time went by, the company moved to an industrial estate in the Usabal District (Tolosa) and automated it's manufacturing processes and adjusted staff to the up's and down's of the market. 

Presently, Boinas Elósegui has approximately 30 people in employment with an annual production of some 200.000 berets.

With the introduction of other manufacturers, from China, South Korea and India, sales have gone down, especially for the production of military berets. But, together with Béatex (France), Boinas Elósegui is still the market leader for civilian berets (and in my humble opinion, nothing beats a beret made by Elósegui).   

 

Production:

Civilian Berets	Military Berets	Peaked Caps	Caps
58%	32%	6%	4%

 

Sales:

Spain	EU	Americas	Africa	Asia
62%	15%	10%	5%	8%

 

 

Simplisties Verbond

Too long and too far away from my roots in the Netherlands, I had to be reminded by my old friend Bert Schilte about van Kooten en De Bie. Shame on me and thanks to you, Bert! 

Two of the few Dutch civilians under the age of 65 who wore a beret in public (in the 1970's, that is). 

Van Kooten en De Bie were a Dutch comedy duo formed by Kees van Kooten and Wim de Bie.

The two cooperated for years, before they started to work for the public broadcasting organization VPRO, where they first performed for radio broadcasting, and later took to making shows for television. Their first television appearance was in 1972 with the program Het Simplisties Verbond (The Simplistik [sic] League), with a carpet-beater as their symbol. The show mainly featured sketches whose returning intricate characters and running gags quickly became very well known in The Netherlands. In 1980 they changed the name of their weekly programme to Koot en Bie, a year later renamed Van Kooten en De Bie. In 1989 the show took a turn to focus more on current events, and was therefore renamed Keek op de week (View on the Week). They had then become such a household name that many people just referred to their show and work as "Koot en Bie".

They were mostly known for the incredible accuracy of their hilarious stereotypical characters and their critical view of Dutch society and politics. In the course of years they performed many characters, fictional and non-fictional.

Their final TV-appearance as "Koot en Bie", took place on 16 November 2003 in the VPRO-program Terugkeek van Van Kooten en De Bie'.

Van Kooten and De Bie were very important for the Dutch culture from the seventies until the nineties, and their intelligent political criticism still resonates today. A lot of typical Koot en Bie expressions made it into the Dutch language.

 

Vilage Hat Shop, again:

The Village Hat Shop in California, USA (www.berets.com) has a great link to Flickr, showing the whole process of  making a Jaxon beret in 10 pictures. Have a look at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14906804@N05/sets/72157602389177894/

 

On loan from The Village Hatshop

Singer Rihanna - Che Guevara - Rachel Bilson - Paul Gauguin - Hillary Duff - Will Poulter

Claude Monet - Ashlee Simpson - John Wayne - Mary-Kate Olsen - Leonard Cohen - Singer Fergie

Size Does Matter

From left to right: 

Beret 'Vrai Basque', French made, 10.5 inch

Boina Elosegui Super Lujo, Spanish, 12 inch

Boina Elosegui Super Lujo, Spanish, 13 inch

Emira Zaza wearing a 10.5 inch, French made Bakarra

Daan with a 15 inch Elosegui Txapela

The Wally Byam Caravanners

In 1929, Wally Byam purchased a Model T Ford chassis, built a platform on it, towed it with his car to a campsite, and painstakingly erected a tent on it. The effort was tiresome and unpleasant, especially when it rained. Spurred on by his first wife Marion, Wally built a tear-drop-shaped permanent shelter on the platform that enclosed a small ice chest and kerosene stove. He then published an article that ran under the headline, "How to Build a Trailer for One Hundred Dollars." Readers wrote Wally for more detailed instruction plans, which he sold at a cost of one dollar each. The response was extraordinary, earning him more than $15,000. After building several trailers for friends in his backyard, "the neighbors started complaining that I was making too much noise," Wally observed, "so I went out and rented a building." Airstream Trailer Company went into full production in 1932, when fewer than 48 trailer manufacturers were registered for business. Five years later, nearly 400 companies squared off against each other. Today, of those 400, only Airstream remains.

Wally liked to wear Wellington boots and plaid shirts with them. His choice of headgear was a blue beret, which he had spied in France. He wore the beret on his first Central American caravan, and it was quickly adopted by fellow caravanners as a means to identify each other in a crowd. The blue beret became a caravan essential. While Wally's fashion taste was offbeat casual, his office at Airstream was a "nightmare of disorder," recalled Stella Hall Byam, Wally's second wife. 

Thanks to: www.airstream.com

Courage and Sang froid

As a reward for their courage and cold-bloodedness after hot air ballooning over French vineyards, Jan and Kazuo Arai from Seattle, Washington, received a red beret. A great souvenir after a fantastic experience... If only it hadn't been the day before 9/11. 

The next day, with flights to the US cancelled indefinitely, not knowing whether they would ever make it back home, the happy spirit to wear their hats disappeared - and the berets appeared on Ebay, and through Ebay to my 

collection in New Zealand...

Mitch Hedberg's struggle with berets

A quote by stand-up comedian Mitch Hedberg, touching on a sentiment that seems to bother lots of people who would really like to wear a beret - but don't...:

“Sometimes I wake up and I think I should start wearing a beret, but I don't do it. One day I'm gonna, though. You bet your ass, I will have a beret on. That's ridiculous, but it's true. I always fight with wearing a beret.” 

 

The Manuscript...

The most confusing research for The Beret is the history. Depending on what source you follow, the beret originates in France, Basque Country, Spain, Italy, Austria, Denmark or even the hold of Noah's ark. The answer to where the beret comes from originally is most likely as diverse as it's assumed origins, it being such a simple, straightforward piece of shaped wool, it is likely to have been invented many times over the centuries in many places around the world. 

Although popular belief associates the beret with France, it was during the Carlist Wars in Spain (1834-1840) that the beret became widely used and gained the association with the Basque Country. 

Throughout the early part of the 1900s the béret was very widely worn in France by shepherds, farmers, painters, artists and of course French school boys. They would receive their first béret between the ages of 8 and 12 from their parents as a mark of passage into the adult world.

The French military béret originated from the wide and floppy headdress worn by the Chasseurs Alpins (mountain light infantry) in the early 1880s.

 

A tight-fitting version was subsequently adopted by French armoured troops towards the end of World War I. During the Second World War the béret became a symbol of French Patriotism. 

Working on the history chapter of The Beret, I found some good information on two web sites: 

Very detailed information on the history and manufacturing process can be found on www.boinaselosegui.com, the web site of the famous Elosegui brand from Tolosa, Spain. Boinas Elosegui started over 150 years ago as a small family business and is now (one of) the leading beret manufacturers in the world. The web site shows detailed pictures of the production process, historic photographs and an enormous selection of berets on offer. Text in English available.

Another web site well worth a visit is http://www.fabricanacionaldesombreros.com.uy/, a traditional Basque beret manufacturer from Uruguay. A beautiful and detailed web site, but text only in Spanish. 

There are two museums solely dedicated to the beret; one in Spain (http://www.laencartadamuseoa.com/eng/fundacion.html) and one in France  (www.museeduberet.com). Both have a variety of berets for sale through their internet shops. 

Delphine Cossais

 Always on the lookout for pictures of berets, I came upon the web site of Delpine Cossais, a French artist whose paintings and other artwork really struck me (whether they show berets or not). Have a look at: http://delphinecossais.typepad.fr/I am waiting for the day that she exhibits in Wellington!

Different berets, different people

 Gauchos, South American descendants of the Basques, still wearing their berets. Most of these are made in Argentina (Tolosa Tupida) or Uruguay and come in a huge range of colours, felted or knitted, wool or cotton.
 Cristina Elisabet Fernandez de Kirchner, president of Argentina
 Ché Guevara, one of the most iconic wearers of a beret
 The archetypical symbol of France, next to the bottle of red wine and the baquette
 Carlist beret, Zumalacarregui

A web site on berets... Why?

When looking for a new beret, I found that there was hardly any information in the English language on this age-old, humble, but fascinating piece of head gear. 

Strange, since the beret played such a prominent role in so many fields. Whether it was adopted by artists and writers (Pablo Picasso, Leonard Cohen, Ernest Hemingway, Jean Paul Sartre, to name just a few...), used in conflicts through the ages (from the Carlist Wars in Spain through to Cuban revolutionaries to the blue berets of United Nations Peacekeepers all over the world), used as a piece of uniform by organizations of all kind (from St Johns Ambulance personnel through Scouting to the Chicana Brown Berets) or as the standard head gear of the Gauchos in South America.

After some googling around, I came upon the web site of photographer Ron Greer, in Seattle. It was through Ron that I acquired my first Boina Elosegui - and more than a few would follow. As Ron states on his web site (http://home.avvanta.com/~rgphoto/2004/basqueberet.htm), this is 'THE greatest boina, or beret, made!', but more on that later.

From that point on, my search intensified. Hungry for more information on the background and history of the beret, I developed a fascination that rapidly turned into an obsession. Presently owning some 50 berets, I got to the point of beginning to wirte a book on the subject. And with the progress of the manuscript, a web site. So here we are. 

Webster: Beret (noun), 1. A cap with no brim or bill; made of soft cloth.

Oxford: Beret, /berray/ (noun) a flattish round cap of felt or cloth.

          Origin: French, 'Basque Cap', from Latin birrus 'hooded cape'.

 

Basque Encyclopedic Dictionary of Auñamendi: the beret is a cap without visor, round and flattened, of wool and consists of one single piece.

 

Boinas Elosegui: Clothing accessory made of wool with the shape of a hemispherical skullcap for the purpose of covering the head as simply as possible.

 

Wisdom

Visera: para aquellos que no se atreven con la boina.

 

Peaked Cap: for people who don't dare to wear a beret.

Web site Boinas Elosegui