Women in Military Beret (1)

Not many pieces of clothing have been so uniformly adopted by armies across the globe as the beret, for men and women alike.
Following a cross section of female military beret wearers:

 Austria

 Canada

 People's Republic of China

 Norway

 Portugal

 United Kingdom

Iraq

Lidové Milice (People's Militia)

An infamous group of Czech Radiovka wearers:

People's Militias (Lidové milice), also called The armed fist of the working class was a militia organisation of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during between 1948 and 1989.

The predecessor of militias were armed groups of factory workers formed in June 1945 to protect the factories during post-war chaos. In 1946 they were renamed Závodní stráže (Factory Guards) and their equipment reduced to pistols.

In the middle of February 1948 the central committee of the Communist Party decided to form armed units from Communist Party members and supporters. Early  1948 these units were renamed Dělnické milice (Worker's Militias). The militias were hastily equipped and set on alert during the communist takeover of power at the end of February. The name was soon changed to People's Militias.

The task of the militias was to protect against guerrillas expected to appear after the takeover, against undercover agents sent to Czechoslovakia and to cooperate with the police and the army. About 3,000 militiamen joined police forces. Non-communists were slowly removed from the militias. The control over the militias went to the Ministry of the Interior.

In 1952 the official status of the militias changed to being the armed part of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and control passed to the Communist Party.

Toward the end of the 1980s, political tensions in Czechoslovakia increased and the militias, equipped with batons, were frequently deployed to disperse demonstrations against the regime. In 1989, 38,985 militiamen participated in this activity.

After the communist party's fall from power at the end of 1989, the militias were dissolved on December 21, 1989.

And yes, the berets, Radiovkas, are the same as worn by generations of Czech farmers and city folk alike, made by the same FEZCO-TONAK factory in Strakonice. 

The Radiovka was such a typical part of the uniform that it appears on various commemoration coins and medals. 

The Heroes of the Resistance

It happened all over Nazi occupied Europe, but best documented in France (and definitely with berets prominently in sight...). 

The smug, self-righteous faces suggest none had any problem with photographers witnessing the events, not understanding themselves the awfulness of what went on.

Members of the fascist Nazi aligned Milice were executed or imprisoned, women who slept with the enemy ("collaboration horizontale" as it was called) had their heads shaved and paraded around town. 

Escorted by brave men with guns, power on their side, the sweet taste of revenge on their lips.

Yes, not the nicest pictures of beret wearers and least of all, candidates for the Role Model Series on this blog. 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr.; 1947) is a retired American professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. NBA coach Pat Riley and players Isiah Thomas and Julius Erving have called him the greatest basketball player of all time.

Playing in Los Angeles facilitated Abdul-Jabbar's trying his hand at acting. He made his film debut in Bruce Lee's 1972 film Game of Death, in which his character Hakim fights Billy Lo (played by Lee).

When he converted to Islam he stated that he was "latching on to something that was part of my heritage, because many of the slaves who were brought here were Muslims. My family was brought to America by a French planter named Alcindor, who came here from Trinidad in the 18th century. My people were Yoruba, and their culture survived slavery...  My father found out about that when I was a kid, and it gave me all I needed to know that, hey, I was somebody, even if nobody else knew about it. When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. And that's a terrible burden on black people, because they don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted."

Kirsty Anna MacColl

Kirsty Anna MacColl (1959 –2000) was an English singer-songwriter who wrote and recorded several pop hits between the early 1980s and the 1990s. She came to notice when Chiswick Records released an EP by local punk rock band the Drug Addix with MacColl on backing vocals under the pseudonym Mandy Doubt (1978). Stiff Records executives were not impressed with the band, but liked her and subsequently signed her to a solo deal.

Her debut solo single "They Don't Know", released in 1979, peaked at number two on the Music Week airplay chart. However, a distributors' strike prevented copies of the single getting into record stores, and the single consequently failed to appear on the UK Singles Chart.

MacColl featured regularly in the third series of the French and Saunders Show, a comedy show on the BBC. 

She also sang on hit recordings produced by her then-husband Steve Lillywhite, notably on tracks by The Smiths and "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues. MacColl was killed by a power boat while swimming with her children at Cozumel, Mexico. The boat involved in the accident was owned by Mexican supermarket millionaire Guillermo González Nova, who found a willing employee to take the blame for him.

She was the daughter of songwriter Ewan MacColl.

PENMAN

Gary Blehm, a.k.a. Penman, created what would become PENMEN in a one room school house near Aspen, Colorado in 1977. 

The character would take him on a 25 year journey of optimism with popular posters, book, newspaper syndication, and a short series animation for European television.

This photo was taken of Gary Blehm, Penman, as a promo to his newly syndicated comic strip. The PENMEN figures are hand made with wooden dowel and wire. Once the photograph was taken the Penmen were sent to Creators Syndicate for promotional gifts of optimism to editors. The photograph published in Editor and Publisher magazine the following year.

Amigos de la Boina

The Amigos de la Boina is a group of beret enthusiasts, nation-wide across Spain, who come together regularly to enjoin the finer things of life – berets being one of these.

It is an attempt to revive the beret to its old glory in Spain, but also to enjoy the company of like-minded folk, typically in a rustic environment with a good supply of food and wine.

Presently, there are chapters in Cuenca, Madrid, Currito and Denia (Alicante), all with their own web sites (some showing no more than photographic evidence of meetings; others with some interesting information on beret history and manufacturing).

Old Seaman with Tam O' Shanter

From the National Museums Scotland: Seaman in Greenock, Renfrewshire, c. 1900 - 1914.

An old seaman sits on a bench, watched by a group of interested schoolchildren. The seaman wears a knitted jersey with a few holes in it. On top of the jersey, he wears a waistcoat. He wears trousers and leather boots. On his head he wears a woollen beret or tam o' shanter. His beard is in a style known as the 'Newgate' fringe or frill.

The schoolboys wear jackets, trousers, white shirts and peaked caps. The little girl wears a short summer dress, ankle socks, shoes with straps and a beret or perhaps a tam o' shanter.

The girl on the background appears to be wearing a "real" beret. 

Robert Laul

More from Sweden: Robert Laul.

Laul (1976) is a sports reporter and columnist for the Aftonbladet newspaper. He is also a footballer for Old Karlbergare in Stockholm.

From 2008 he leads debates on football at Sportbladets website and since 2011 he is involved as a permanent member of the Aftonbladet discussion panel Wow what a week. 

Ulf Adelsohn

Ulf Adelsohn (1941) is a Swedish politician, was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1981 to 1986 and Governor of Stockholm County from 1992 to 2001. He was a member of the Riksdag from 1982 to 1988 and served as Chairman of the Board of SJ AB 2001–2011, from where he resigned due to quarrels with the Reinfeldt cabinet on its railway deregulation policies.

Adelsohn studied law at Stockholm University. He was the chair of the Confederation of Swedish Conservative and Liberal Students, opposed the occupation of the Student Union Building in Stockholm in 1968 and was a co-founder of Borgerliga Studenter – Opposition '68 later in the same year.

His paternal grandparents were Polish Jews and his mother was of Swedish descent. On the side of his mother, he is a descendant (great-great-great-great-grandson) of Jacob Johan Anckarström; the assassin of Gustav III who was convicted for regicide and executed.

Thanks, Ariel

Olivier Meyer and Aguigui Mouna

Olivier Meyer (1957) is a contemporary French photographer from Paris.

His work is in the tradition of humanist photography and Street photography using the same material as many of the forerunners of this style: Kodak Tri-X black and white film, silver bromide prints on baryta paper, Leica M3 or Leica M4 with a 50 or 90 mm lens. The thin black line surrounding the prints shows that the picture has not been cropped. His inspiration came from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Édouard Boubat, Saul Leiter. 

His portrait of Aguigui Mouna sticking his tongue out like Albert Einstein, published in postcard form in 1988, and subsequently as an illustration in a book by Anne Gallois served as a blueprint for a stencil work by the artist Jef Aérosol in 2006.

Thanks, Olivier

Shaping a Military Beret

Laulhère is the main supplier of berets to the 28 country strong NATO military, next to the many armies of other countries on five continents. Laulhère has now launched a  web site, specifically for their military line of production. It describes the manufacturing process, the pure merino wool that is used for making berets, the various options for military berets and more.

At the same time, Laulhère commissioned a video clip on how to shape their Commando berets. Irish born sales director Mark Saunders does a good job detailing how to get the desired effects in your military beret.
Presently, there are only a few Commando berets in stock at South Pacific Berets; some green berets as issued to the Foreign Legion and Navy Infantry Commandos (here) and two individual berets in red (Para) and black in the One-Offs Section (here). 

One word of caution: some customers have not quite anticipated the very small plateau (diameter) of these berets; these berets are sitting more on the head, than pulled over the head. Before wearing it for the first time, the beret needs some stretching and nudging to get to the correct size.

DEER Summer Basques

On this 10th April, 2015 (DEER Basque factory Kongo-Shokai Ltd. already closed down), South Pacific Berets received the very last berets made by the famous manufacturer from Kobe; made with the last material available during the last days of the factory operating. 

Berets that we had not stocked before, but are -in the tradition of the wool and linen DEER Basques- small pieces of art in their own right.

DEER Summer Basques, made of a finely knit, breathing polyester, fittedwith an ultra light mesh lining and topped off with the silver DEER Basque 'Light' embroidered label. These very first are at the same time the very last - what's in stock now is all there is and will never be replaced (and most colour/size combinations are only available in ones or two's).

To those who, like me at first, have their doubts about non-wool / non-cotton berets, I would say "Try! I'd guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised!". 

Only here, as long as stock lasts!