Thursday, September 07, 2006

The return of Le Beret


And you thought Parisians no longer wear berets? All wrong! Not only can you still find the old Frenchman sporting the traditional beret (dark blue) but more often than not, today they're left to the trendy crowd (of which, no, I am not one!) who likes them with brighter colours like this hot red one that was on display near Les Halles.

19 comments:

  1. I especially love the moustache and goatee drawn onto the manequin head!

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  2. Now, wait just a minute, young man! This is not a true béret Basque, I think; it's missing the little thingy on top, like so:

    http://www.millerhats.com/beret_catalog/beret2.html

    Actually, you can tell a true beret by looking inside, see label and piece of leather holding it together, if memory serves.

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  3. Believe me, there is a definite 'beret effect' which occurs when one dons a beret and goes out in public. I can testify to this from personal experience when I switch out of my summer baseball hat and into the winter beret.

    If anyone doubts the veracity of the 'beret effect' I challenge and encourage them to just give it a try...

    LOL!

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  4. Here i am sitting in my home in Australia in a beret!
    Oooooh, its catchy!

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  5. Mmmm... looks VERY trendy, but I'll have to stick to the traditional one. You have to be very brave to walk in the street with a red beret...

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  6. Hi, I've been visiting here for months and am now finally commenting. Thanks for sharing your great pictures and accompanying stories! I enjoyed your pictures and commentary so much that I branched out and visit many daily photos now. In fact I like all the cities so much, that it inspired me to make a Firefox extension so a different city's daily photo page could load each time the browser starts.

    https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3107/

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  7. Love the trendy pirate look! Kind of ala Johnny Depp!

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  8. Love the trendy pirate look! Kind of ala Johnny Depp!

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  9. Eric has inspired so many people in so many ways. That's so cool that Nathan was inspired to make that extention. Little ripples in the water where you tossed your pebble, Eric. And Kudos on this photo of "brainy Pierre's" le beret rouge. The question now is if John Nez would feel the beret effect if he wore a red one in winter in Seattle? Me non!
    -Kim

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  10. Vive la Révolution! - I will have to buy one of those when I am in Paris.

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  11. I am studying as a cool hunter, so this post reminded me that I have to be in paris soon to capture new trends :-)

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  12. Eric, my grandfather of 91 goes to Paris (when he stil could each yr)especially to buy an original french beret. True story.

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  13. Agree with Michael! Love the mustache and gotee!

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  14. When I wear a beret in France, everyone thinks I am a Frenchman. What a shock when I answer someone in my fractured French. Red Beret? A little too far out for a man of 72.

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  15. Hey everyone, do you remember the photo of this scultpure for which we were trying to determine the name and artist?

    Well, I had a response from the Communications Director at the EMOC (Établissement public de maîtrise d'ouvrage des travaux culturels) who states that it is called "La Révélation artistique" by Paul Grasq (1860-1944).

    Now, all that being said, I have searched all over the web to try and find this guy and sculpture to no avail. Maybe one of you will have more luck than I.

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  16. I want one... do they come in purple!
    I love the goatee on the mannequin head!

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  17. Yes Helen....purple, pink, green, you name it! How many do you want to order?

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  18. Flares have come back, platform shoes too, so it is long past due for a beret revival!

    I'd like mine delivered with Johnny Depp underneath, thanks.

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  19. Tardets!! Or in Pau, they still sport the faithful blue!!

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