Men in Hats

Actually, the title of this particular edition of Men in Hats is not quite correct. This edition deals with the beret. A beret is not a hat. Properly speaking, a beret is a cap. And this edition deals only with the Basque or French beret -- not the military beret. Military berets should only be worn by members of the military.

So, to get to the point, the beret, in the United States, is usually considered the headgear of the beatnik, the weird-o, expatriate Hungarians, the artist and men who just not quite get into wearing caps and hats.

Let it be known to the reader that your faithful correspondent has worn a beret at his work place for many years, The value of the beret in a machine shop is that it protects one's head from dripping machine oil and flying metal chips. For the non-machinist the beret serves to keep the head warm in the winter and to give the wearer a certain elan that a ball cap or pinched front cap cannot match. The beret is easily storable and can be stuffed into one's back pocket while not wearing it at a bistro, or slid through the epaulet or one's trench coat while interviewing a old leader in Eastern Europe.


The best berets are offered in three different sizes. By sizes the writer does not mean hat size. The size in question refers to the size of the widest part of the beret. The smallest size looks somewhat like a Girl Scout beret. The largest size looks like a nineteenth century French painter's beret -- very floppy. The norm is a medium size as is shown in the photo of the crazy old coot at the top of this edition.


The advantage of the beret is that one can more or less shape it to one's personality. Some pull the excess fabric forward giving a bit of a determined type look. Some pull the excess fabric back and wear the beret as did Che Guevara (as an aside, it should be a national policy that if anyone be seen in public wearing a Che tee-shirt in public, that person should be shot right in the silver star of the beret of the tee-shirt. Guevara was a monster of the worst sort). Some wears pull the beret to the side while others, as the old coot above, believe in the circle mode of wear.

The best berets are made with lanolin rich wool and should really never be washed and only very carefully dry cleaned at the worst. The best way to clean them is to brush them off and only clean the headband. To wash a beret is to destroy the rain repellent quality of the beret. A good beret should have a proper integral headband. Those without headbands are cheap and will not last a year. The best headbands are of leather, but Kangol makes a decent beret with a grosgrain headband.

For summer wear in hot climates there are crocheted cotton berets available. The best are made in Canada and are available in many colors. The cotton berets do not have headbands, but they are long lasting berets.

In a pinch, one can were a Rastafarian style toque. The mass market versions of these toques are usually made in Guatemala, and are usually made featuring patterns using red, yellow and black as colors. This writer, for years, wore a toque with a pattern based on the Grateful Dead's Lighting Skull logo in red, white and blue. The only problem with the toque is that people assume one is a pothead or Reggae fan, and that they are a bit heavy. But they do last a long time.

So, if you're not into wearing a proper hat and don't want to look like a goon or adolescent by wearing a ball cap, consider the beret. At first some people may think that you're some sort of beatnik wannbe, but after a while they'll realize that you, in your own way, are running with the bulls.