The New Italians!

Yes, the Italians are in! The Basco Roma is available in all sizes 57 - 60 again (and size 61 in black!) and also there is the brand new 'basco di cotone bianco, a beautifully crafted beret in white cotton - the ideal beret for summer and warm climates.

The Bianco is a traditionally made beret, 250mm diameter, breathable and extremely comfortable to wear. Made by Melegari, Milano.

A small number is now available through South Pacific Berets. 

Fausto Coppi (and the Lady in White)

Angelo Fausto Coppi (1919 – 1960), was the dominant international cyclist of the years each side of the Second World War. His successes earned him the title Il Campionissimo, or champion of champions. He was an all-round racing cyclist: he excelled in both climbing and time trialing, and was also a great sprinter. He won the Giro d'Italia five times (1940, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953), the Tour de France twice (1949 and 1952), and the World Championship in 1953. Other notable results include winning the Giro di Lombardia five times, the Milan – San Remo three times, as well as wins at Paris–Roubaix and La Flèche Wallonne and setting the hour record (45.798 km) in 1942.

(The married) Fausto caused huge controversy in Catholic and puritan Italy when leaving his wife for (the also married) Giulia Occhini, described by the French broadcaster Jean-Paul Ollivier as "strikingly beautiful with thick chestnut hair divided into enormous plaits". The Pope himself intervened, to no avail. 

Coppi's life story was depicted in the 1995 TV movie, Il Grande Fausto, written and directed by Alberto Sironi. Coppi was played by Sergio Castellitto and Giulia la 'Dama Bianca' (The Woman in White) was played by Ornella Muti.

Photo © Henri Cartier-Bresson - Boulevard Diderot / Sidewalk Cafe, 1969.

Sex and the Single Girl

Sex and the Single Girl was written in 1962 by Helen Gurley Brown, as an advice book that encouraged women to become financially independent and experience sexual relationships before or without marriage. The book sold 2 million copies in 3 weeks, was sold in 35 countries and has made The Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Time bestseller lists.

Warner Brothers paid $200,000 for the rights to the book that was made into a film of the same name in 1964 starring Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall. The film version follows the main character, Dr. Helen Gurley Brown (Wood), who is based loosely on Gurley Brown, through several comedic situations resulting from the publication of her book Sex and the Single Girl.

The film was a box office hit and one of the top 20 highest grossing films of 1964. The Time Out Film Guide 2009 describes the film as a "Coyly leering comedy...graceless stuff, criminally wasting Bacall and Fonda as a couple with marital problems...with Quine's moderate flair for comedy nowhere in evidence" and with "noise substituting for wit and style" according toHalliwell's Film & Video Guide.

Philip Grimmer

Meet Philip grimmer, impersonator of Madonna and Kylie Minogue, with beret, of course. 

Grimmer is finalist in Britain's Got Talent, but is now suing the TV company for remarks made as him being gay or a transvestite. Grimmer reassured the readers of The Sun tabloid that he "is as straight as straight can be" and sues for £2.5million.

Lana Turner

More Hollywood Glamour: Lana Turner.

Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice

Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Lana Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget (1937). She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938). During the early 1940s she established herself as a leading actress in such films as Johnny Eager (1941), Ziegfeld Girl (1941) and Somewhere I'll Find You (1942). She is known as one of the first Hollywood scream queens thanks to her role in the 1941 horror film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and her reputation as a glamorous femme fatale was enhanced by her performance in the film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Her popularity continued through the 1950s, in such films as The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Peyton Place (1957), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 1958, her daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed Turner's lover Johnny Stompanato to death. A coroner's inquest brought considerable media attention to Turner and concluded that Crane had acted in self defense. Turner's next film, Imitation of Life (1959), proved to be one of the greatest successes of her career, but from the early 1960s, her roles were fewer.

Turner spent most of the 1970s and early 1980s in semi-retirement, working only occasionally. In 1982 she accepted a much publicized and lucrative recurring guest role in the television series Falcon Crest. She followed Falcon Crest with a two episode appearance on the series Love Boat. Turner made her next, and final, television appearance in 1991, and died from throat cancer in 1995.

The New Pakols Are In!

Arrived today: the new stock from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. 

Hand made Pakols in 100% wool, size adjustable and available in brown again, but now also in black.

$49.50 including international postage and handling! Have a look here.

Marilyn Monroe (3) and Ché Guevara

More Marilyn Monroe... 

The Cuban Art Space of the Center for Cuban Studies opens an unusual exhibit on March 6 in Chelsea. The exhibit, “Contraparte,” consists of 20 paintings and installations (clothing) whose focus is Marilyn Monroe and Ché Guevara, icons of two very different societies.

There are seven diptychs, each of which show images of Marilyn and Ché, sometimes half hidden, one behind another. They play rhythmically against and with one another. 

The installations do likewise: Marilyn’s most famous outfits are recreated out of Cuban military uniforms; Ché’s military shirt is made of golden fabric. Red, white and blue berets with gold and silver stars are shaped into a Cuban flag; other, black, berets sit atop the dresses.

Marilyn Monroe (2)

There's lot's more on Marilyn Monroe and berets than yesterday's post.
Like this key-ring, also available as a (pretty awful) bracelet charm, depicting the white beret with gems that was once worn by la Monroe.

I prefer the real thing, like these photographs here:

But there are more who profit from Monroe's famous beret wearing, like Rihana, in Vogue, below:

Marilyn Monroe (1)

Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson but baptized and raised as Norma Jeane Baker; 1926 – 1962 was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s.

After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950) drew attention to her—by now her hair was dyed blonde. By 1953, Monroe had progressed to a leading role in Niagara (1953), a melodramatic film noir that dwelled on her seductiveness. Her "dumb blonde" persona was used to comic effect in subsequent films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). 

Limited by typecasting, Monroe studied at the Actors Studio to broaden her range. Her dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) was hailed by critics, and she received a Golden Globe nomination. Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and won a David di Donatello award. She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959). Monroe's final completed film was The Misfits, co-starring Clark Gable with the screenplay written by her then-husband, Arthur Miller.

The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to work with. The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a "probable suicide", the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as the possibility of homicide, have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the years and decades following her death, Monroe has often been cited as both a pop and a cultural icon as well as the quintessential American female sex symbol.

Paul Newman's Own

Giorgi Meladze

Giorgi Meladze is a Georgian architect and photographer from Tbilisi, author of the series: Beret out of Army. 

Auguste Rodin

François-Auguste-René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917), known as Auguste Rodin, was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art.

Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. 

Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, but refused to change his style. Successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.

Portrait of Rodin by Pierre Choumoff with a wide beret, near 1917, photography, © musée Rodin, Paris

Osa Johnson

Osa Johnson with beret

In the first half of the 20th century an American couple from Kansas named Martin and Osa Johnson captured the public's imagination through their films and books of adventure in exotic, far-away lands...Photographers, explorers, naturalists and authors, Martin and Osa studied the wildlife and peoples of East and Central Africa, the South Pacific Islands and British North Borneo...They explored then unknown lands and brought back knowledge of cultures thousands of miles away through their films, writings and lectures. 

From 1917-1936, the Johnsons set up camp in some of the most remote areas of the world and provided an unmatched photographic record of the wildernesses of Kenya, the Congo, British North Borneo and the Solomon and New Hebrides Islands...Their equipment was the most advanced motion pictures apparatus of the day, some of it designed by Martin Johnson himself.

Iakob Nikoladze (იაკობ ნიკოლაძე)

Iakob Nikoladze (1876-1951) was a Georgian sculptor and artist. He is perhaps best known as the designer of the previous state flag of Georgia. The design resulted from a national flag-designing contest. This flag was abolished by the Soviet Union following the 1921 takeover of Georgia but was revived on November 14, 1990 by the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia. It lost popularity thereafter as it became associated with the chaotic and violent period following Georgia's independence from the Soviet Union.

The Iakob Nikoladze House Museum is dedicated to his works and was established after his death in his home-studio in his native town of Kutaisi. The museum houses sculptures, sketches, photo and documentary materials.

The Super Lujo's are BACK!

The new stock from Spain is in! And by popular request this includes the boinas Exposición Super Lujo extra small diameter 9.5" and the extra large diameter 13".

Boinas Elósegui's top of the line berets in 100% Australian merino wool, blue satin lining and carrying the EuskalHerria (Basque Country) label.

These are the densest (heaviest) quality berets on the market today. And, price includes international postage and handling.

Also, well stocked again are the 34.9cm/13.7" and 37.2cm/14.6" Exposición Txapelduns.

E. 2nd St. by James Jowers

Louis Jou

Louis Jou (1882 - 1968) was a twentieth century etcher and wood engraver. Louis Jou illustrated a large number of books in France. His original etchings and wood engravings appeared in books authored by Andre Gide, Balery, Victor Hugo, Gourmont, Wilde, Cervantes and many more. Louis Jou was so successful in this artistic medium that he set up his own publishing house in Paris in order to gain greater freedom for the creation of his books.