Excellent ebook (free) from Gentleman's Gazette

"The brute covers himself, the rich man and the fop adorn themselves, the elegant man dresses!"

-Honore de Balzac

le.gentleman
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Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:59 am

Dear hectorm,

Thank you for the comment. I guess I should have clarified myself. Yes, some French men still wear it today. Yes, it is worn by soldiers, Olympic teams and actors. However, if you go on the street, be it in London, Milan, Paris or New York, you will hardly ever see a man in a beret, while I still see older women with berets from time to time. For modern men outside of France.
In any case, I have revised the passage to make my point clearer.
Do you wear Berets?
Btw, I checked several men's fashion encyclopedias and only one of them mentions the Beret as the hat of the basque peasants. I think the northern basque parents are claimed as the originators of the beret. I'd be curious to learn more about it and I would appreciate if you could produce a little guide about the beret that goes beyond wikipedia, would you be interested in writing one hectorm?
hectorm wrote:Nice token (I hope I don´t sound patronizing) for GG subscribers. It makes very enjoyable light reading.
Thank you for making it available also here on the LL.
And thanks to couch for bringing up the old posts by Etutee, whose systematic approach to the topic, in my case, would have gone unnoticed if it weren´t for his reminder.

PS: I take serious issue with Mr. Schneider´s statement that "a Beret is certainly not a masculine accent" (in the Winter 1933 page of his eBook). Discounting it as a totally unsubstantiated (not to mention offensive) opinion, unfortunately -despite enjoying the read- it also makes me wonder about his authority on these subjects.
Last edited by le.gentleman on Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:17 am, edited 2 times in total.
le.gentleman
Posts: 272
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 4:30 pm
Location: St. Paul, MN
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Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:10 am

Simon A wrote:
couch wrote:
hectorm wrote:I take serious issue with Mr. Schneider´s statement that "a Beret is certainly not a masculine accent" (in the Winter 1933 page of his eBook)
Image
Try telling these Gauchos they look girly in a beret....

Image
Image
My father is from Santa Catarina, a state in southern Brazil where they have Gauchos and I have been there several times but I have never seen a Gaucho with a Beret. Where did you find this picture? There are Gauchos in Rio Grande do Sul as well as Argentina but I am just interested.
Simon A

Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:25 am

The Boina (beret) is pretty common amongst Argentinian and Uruguayan gauchos; I am not sure about Brazil.

This video from Buenos Aires Province shows both sombrero and boina being worn
le.gentleman
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Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:46 pm

Simon A wrote:The Boina (beret) is pretty common amongst Argentinian and Uruguayan gauchos; I am not sure about Brazil.

This video from Buenos Aires Province shows both sombrero and boina being worn
Thanks for sharing
hectorm
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Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:31 pm

le.gentleman wrote: I have revised the passage to make my point clearer.
Do you wear Berets?
I would appreciate if you could produce a little guide about the beret that goes beyond wikipedia, would you be interested in writing one?
Thank you Raphael for addressing the issue regarding your comment about berets and masculinity. It didn´t look good on the pages of your nice eBook.
I cannot say that I don´t wear berets but I don´t wear them regularly. Maybe 5 or 6 times a year, at the most.
I inherited a black one (in so-so condition) from my father-in-law and grew fond of wearing it with my peacoat on colder days. I never worried much about not having the Basque heritage that would entitle me to it. A few years back, I replaced it with a new Elósegui bought at the lovely old shop La Favorita on the Plaza Mayor of Madrid. Beyond the fact that I like its looks, I find the beret very practical for stashing in a pocket and with more character than any knit cap.
Like I usually do with clothes, in the past I´ve done some light research on berets, mainly because I wanted to know more about what I was wearing. It´s definitely a very interesting subject, considering its civil and military lineages, its diaspora, and even its elaborate one piece construction, but in no way I´m in position to write any kind of guide on the subject. Maybe I´ll add this idea to my list of projects for when I retire.
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