Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta

Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta (1870 – 1945) was a Spanish painter, born in Eibar (Guipuzcoa), near the monastery of Loyola. He was the son of metalworker and damascener Plácido Zuloaga and grandson of the organizer and director of the royal armoury in Madrid.

In his youth, he drew and worked in his father's workshop. He was educated by the Jesuits in France. His father wanted him to be an architect, and with this objective in mind, he was sent to Rome, where he immediately followed the strong impulse that led him to painting. After only six months' work he completed his first picture, which was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1890. Continuing his studies in Paris, where he lived for five years, he was strongly influenced by Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Only upon returning to his native land did he find his true style, which is based on the national Spanish tradition embodied in the work of Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, El Greco, and Francisco Goya.

His own country was slow in acknowledging the young artist whose strong, decorative and rugged style stood in opposition to the styles of well-known modern Spanish artists such as Fortuny, Madrazo, and Benlliure. It was first in Paris, and then Brussels and other European art centres, that Zuloaga was hailed by the reformers as the regenerator of Spanish national art and as the leader of a school. He is now represented in galleries across Europe.

Beret Top 5

Okay, okay, I have been asked so many times about my favourite beret, that I'd better get public about it. The short of it is: I have no favourite beret!
There are a few, and depending on the weather and my mood, they change. This would be my Top-5-List, but the order is absolutely random.

- The Basco Roma, usually the anthracite-grey version. Great beret, easy to wear, always looks smart and extremely comfortable. And of course, I appreciate the rich tradition of this "popular workers beret". 

- The "Tarte". the grand beret of the Chasseurs Alpins. I especially like the military winter version, a very heavy (180 grams) thick felted beret in a dark navy-blue. Presently, I only stock the "nicer" dress version in black, but within another 2 weeks I should receive a small number of these winter berets (they are very hard to get as the French Ministry of Defense forbids sales outside the military). 
It is a stiff, heavy affair that just fits absolutely perfect, stays on in any storm (not taken lightly, when living in Wellington, NZ) and always attracts looks and comments (generally positive).

- The boina Tolosa Tupida Plato Grande: similar in style to the above mentioned Tarte, but lighter in both the merino wool and cotton versions. Great summer berets, providing protection from the sun for neck and face. Very comfortable.

- The headband-less Bakarra Excellence beret by Blancq-Olibet. Great everyday-wear beret, made on special order for South Pacific Berets. Interestingly, all the quality French berets are fitted with headbands (unlike the Spanish) and I had to negotiate with a reluctant manufacturer to have these models made. Top quality French berets, my beret du jour while writing this. 

- The Spanish Super Lujo's, of course. These are still at the very top end of quality berets. I wear the Super Lujo in the large 325cm version when going out - a beautiful dress beret that seems to be made for going to the theatre or a day at the races; around the house I wear the 242mm version. 

Did I say Top 5? I can't make any list without naming the Czech Radiovka; I honestly believe that no beret wearer should go without one! 

An age-old classic, simple, very small diameter beret with tartan lining- perfect in the house on a cool night or a nice summer's day when a tarte is a bit much. 

Pablo Uranga Diaz de Arkaia (1861–1934) was a Spanish painter born in Gasteiz.

He lived in Paris for seven years with the sculptor Francisco Durrio before becoming a protégé of Ignacio Zuloaga, who he joined in travels to the United States and Cuba.

After 1930, he dedicated himself to portraits for three years. He espoused a break with tradition yet worked within established techniques and styles so that classic and modern touches are found side by side in his work.

Ron Kovic

Ronald Lawrence Kovic (born July 4, 1946) is an anti-war activist, veteran and writer who was paralyzed in the Vietnam War. He is best known as the author of the memoir Born on the Fourth of July, which was made into an Academy Award–winning movie directed by Oliver Stone, with Tom Cruise playing Kovic.

Kovic received the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay on January 20, 1990, exactly 22 years to the day that he was wounded in Vietnam. Ron Kovic was also nominated for an Academy Award for best screen play.

Bruce Springsteen wrote the song "Shut Out The Light" after reading Kovic's memoir and then meeting him. Tom Paxton, the folk singer/political activist, wrote the song "Born on the Fourth of July", which is on his "New Songs from the Briarpatch" album. Academy Award winning actress Jane Fonda has stated that Ron Kovic's story was the inspiration for her film Coming Home.

Misère au Borinage

The Borinage is best known for its former coalmining industry. The living conditions of the miners were featured in the famous documentary film 'Misère au Borinage' (1933) made by Henri Storck and Joris Ivens.

In 1932, a great strike paralysed the coalmines of Wallonia and the response of employers and the police had been merciless. Throughout it all the broader population was ill-informed and largely indifferent. André Thirifays, Pierre Vermeylen and all the indignant young people involved in the Club de l'écran, decided to bear witness to this dire poverty using their weapon, the camera. With the aid of a doctor and a lawyer, with very little funding, hiding from the police but supported by the whole population, the shoot took place in difficult and exciting conditions.

The film is hard and has lost nothing of its strength: evictions; thin-faced and absent-looking children packed together in slum houses; the procession with the portrait of Karl Marx; the collecting of low grade coal on the slagheaps at dawn; the begging miner etc.

There is also the shock of images placed side by side: houses standing empty while homeless people sleep in the street, near-famine conditions with no aid, whereas big sums of money go to construct a church...

And it was all repeated in the 1960's, with the closure of the mines. This great picture is by Dolf Kruger.

Carlo Carlini

I couldn't find much information on Carlo Carlini , apart from the many (musical) tributes, after his death last December. Like Chip Taylor's, below.

What I did find, is a good collection of photographs of Carlo Carlini, with beret, and from the look of it: a Basco Roma. 

Carlini was a great promoter of "real" American music in Italy, dedicated his life to music he loved.

His day time job was installing car alarms, but much of the money earned went to pay for the artists and concerts he organized.  

Mountain Troops Berets

The Tarte of the Chasseurs Alpins was one of the first Basque berets I wore and still among my favourite berets. 

It is interesting to see that many mountain troops adopted the beret as their headgear, but not many seemed to see the advantages of the very large diameter (perfect protection from snow and sun, big enough to keep soldiers' feet dry while on guard duty).

The Romanian 10th Mountain Troops Battalion are an exception (above). 

The Spanish have taken to a standard size green beret, while the Belgian Chasseurs Ardennais, while not exactly a mountain regiment, did go the whole way and wear large diameter green berets (with txortena!). Interestingly, they wear Blancq-Olibet's top quality Vrai Basque berets. 

Australia (4)

 1960's Australia, or anywhere, was a lot more innocent than it is these days. 

 What photographer would have access now to schoolgirls' bedrooms to shoot a series of photographs?

Australia (3)

Schulim Krimper, 1959 by Melbourne (Berlin born) photographer Mark Strizic.

Two unidentified men in open-top sports car, Mark Strizic, between 1950 and 1980.

Painter working on metal braces and scaffolding, 1953.

Sightseers in the bush, Victoria. Date unknown.

The Great Northern Winter

Yes, South Pacific Berets is already stocking up for the northern hemisphere winter. Sorry to say, but it'll be there before you know it, and who would want to be caught out without the appropriate beret?

There are a lot of French berets on their way; replacement stock, but also new models - the most luxurious berets ever stocked by SPB. 

But the first of the new stock that made it to New Zealand are the Czech made Radiovka's. What more to add to everything that has been written on this blog already about these wonderful little berets? No beret aficionado can afford to go without one (and yes, I honestly believe so). 

Back in stock in sizes 56, 58 and 60 - click here.

Australia (2)

More from the archives, Sheilas only this time:

Miss Stella Power, the Australian singer, and protege of the late Dame Nellie Melba 1934.

Girl in garden (possibly Mary Constance Anderson) with a basset and a small black terrier, one of the dogs is called Larry 1910.

Two unidentified women standing on stairs at the races, 1990's.

And this series of two "Nancy, On Way To Top", 27 July 1929.

Australia (1)

To the chagrin of many of my fellow New Zealanders, I have to say that  our brethren at the other side of the Tasman Sea have a much more developed sense of style and fashion. 

This is not only reflected in the beret sales of South Pacific Berets to Australia, but is also found in the many beautiful photographs I found in the archives of some of Australia's State Libraries. 

Like this series of "The Inspection of Wharves", in  Carrington 1953.

Interestingly, not much different from similar photographs from France and Italy of that era. To be continued...

Jean Paul 'Pablo' Tillac

Jean Paul, often called 'Pablo', Tillac, was born in 1880 in Angoulême and  died in 1969 in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).

Tillac was a French Basque painter, printmaker, sculptor and illustrator who lived and worked mainly in the Basque Country.

 Tillac took classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he had  Gerome , Cormon , Jacquet, Waltner and Roty as teachers.

From 1903 to 1910 he lived in New York and after that in Cuba . He taught drawing in  Texas, went to England and returned to Europe in 1911, settling permanently in Cambo-les-Bains in 1919.

Tillac was passionate about the Iberian world, to the point of adopting the name Pablo, but also to the Greek and Latin culture. His erudition is vast, in addition to French and Basque, he spoke Arabic, Greek, English, Hebrew and Castilian.

He worked in a large variety of techniques: oil, watercolor, charcoal, pastel, chalk, graphite, printmaking, sculpting. His subjects are scenes of life, human behaviour, the Basque Country in all its aspects, sites, monuments, markets, and similar. His works have big ethnographic value (and depict many, many berets!).

Moreover, he wrote articles and gave ethnographic lectures. He illustrated many books, including Legends of the Basque Country according to the tradition of Father Jean Barbier (1930).

Much of his work during his lifetime joined the Basque Museum of Bayonne . Another part, after his death, returned to Cambo.