Béretreturn

«Are people really the way they’re pictured? For example, do the men wear berets and blue and white striped T-shirts?»

At the beginning of the last century, the beret was worn by the Béarnais and the Basques from South-West France. There is an annual beret-throwing championship. The world record is 42 metres.

Made of black wool, the beret is also traditionally worn by students and by farmers in country areas. It is always round, wide and flat and is also part of the uniform of the French Alpine regiments. In the winter, their berets are white like the snow. The Toulouse parachute unit wear red ones. Across the Atlantic, American commandos in the Vietnam war were called the “Green Berets”.

Very few Frenchmen wear anything at all on their heads today, and if they do, to the disappointment of lovers of stereotypes, it’s more likely to be a flat cap than a beret or bowler hat.

In the 1970s there were thirty or so beret manufacturers but today there are only two left!

And for the ladies…

Women like Jane Manson, Cindy Crawford and Madonna have taken to wearing berets, either in black or in brighter colours.

Worn jauntily at an angle it certainly looks good but, though a beret may seem quite stylish in New York, French women prefer to leave their hair unencumbered.