Un Béret

The Beret is a hat I could associate with the French, but that is only a small part of its many roles, this is a hat with many strong associations which I've pointed out below

I started with the French but if you go back to its origins it can be equally be Spanish or Scottish were they are called Scottish Bonnets, notable the Tam-o-shanter.

The hat I'm wearing is one I associate with the French with little pip of fabric in the centre.

The Beret is a round flat, soft hat were the fabric overhangs the headband on all sides equally. 

Berets can be handwoven, made of lightweight wool felt, crocheted, knitted or modern fibres.

The Beret as far as I can tell started with Basque shepherds in the 17th Century and was then mass produced by the French and Spanish in 19th Century.

They are used as military hats, the Blue Berets of Scotland in the 17th Century, The blue berets of French forces in 18th Century, American Special forces called Green Berets, the red berets of the British Parachute regiment and many other military groups.

They are also the hat of revolutionaries, most notably the image of Cha Guevara, The black berets of the black power movement in the United States, The black Berets of the IRA, and one I knew nothing about the brown berets of the Chicano Movement which wants parts of the United States returned to Mexico, and many more.

One Hat Many Styles

From a basic wide brimmed felt hat you can change its look into many other styles. 

The photos below are all the same £5 felt hats from Primark, all created with quick stitch, you can cut and decorate to make many more better looks. 

Below the basic black felt hat as you buy it.

Below a Bicorn

Below a Tricorn

Below almost a Quadricorn, it needed a wider brim really, but 4 points were almost achieved.

Below a Yokel Hat

PS these were all purchased for £1 at the end of the season by my friend Dave who the master of spotting a bargain.

Not a Lamp shade, its a Hat

This is not a lamp shade, its a genuine reproduction medieval straw hat from the 13 or 14th Century, that is in fact very comfortable and cooling in the summer like most straw hats.

This was purchased from a polish trader at the Tewkesbury medieval fair in 2015
See this link 

This style of hat was worn by both men and women probably field workers if you look at contemporary drawings. ( See here )

Ransom Beanie

The Beanie hat, a brimless cloth hat.

This beanie was a give-away at film fair, I'm guessing around 1996 since that was when the film was released. 

I use the hat as a general purpose hat that I keep at the ready in my winter coat for when the going gets bitter cold, like this week.

Flatcap

The flat cap or flatcap is a rounded cloth cap with a small stiff brim in front and is usually made of wool, tweed or cotton and lined with a softer fabric. 

 The hat is also known at least according to wikipedia as a Cabbie cap, Longshoreman's cap, Cloth cap, Scally cap, Wigens cap, Ivy cap, Golfers cap, Duffer cap, Duckbill cap, Driving cap, Jeff cap, Irish cap, Newsboy cap, Crook cap, or a Paddy cap, in Scotland its called a Bunnet, in Wales its called Dai cap. That's more names than I knew and I think easily beats all the names you can find for other styles of hats. 

 The original flat cap can be traced back as far the 14th century.

The growth of woollen cloth hats of many styles came about when a act of parliament in the late 16th century made not wearing a woollen hat on Sundays for males an offence, basically the law was designed to stimulate the wool trade, this gave rise to common wearing of caps and so became a recognised symbol of common man in England, even today its still associated with a working class man even though many wealthy and iconic people wear them. 

 Flat caps became very popular in 19th and 20th century throughout Britain, Ireland and United States, although it seem to have been totally supplanted in current times by the baseball cap especially in  United States. 

 The hat I'm wearing a traditional northern England flat cap

Basotho hat

The Basotho Hat is the traditional hat of Losotho a country totally surrounded by South Africa, known as the Kindom of the Sky since its almost entirely situated 1000 feet above sea level.

The Hat is also known as the Mokorotlo and is the only hat to appear on a national flag, it appeared until 1986 and was linked to the royal heritage of the county.

Conical in shape and made of straw, its should have 5 rings at the top where the straw ends meet, the 5th centre ring as below joins the others together in a symbolic union.

The shape was possible inspired by shape of Qiloane mountain which is near the fortress of a early Losotho king, called Moshoeshoe I.

I have used this to represent oriental culture, which is totally wrong since its African not Asian, but it works well, since most people would not know much about its true background.

Below my hat being used during a event, by one of the crew.

Fancy Dress Oriental Hat

This is a joke shop Chinese hat based on the conical coolie hat.

The shape is authentic, but the rest as far as can tell is pure fantasy, but for the purposes of larp, fancy dress, even theatre it is instantly recognisable as oriental headgear.

You can find them all over eBay and Amazon for about a five pounds, for your quick oriental character.

They often come with a pigtails, this one did but I removed it.

Oriental Tall Hat

This hat was made by a friend as a surprise gift, I have good friends it seems.

The hat was inspired by a character in oriental movie, although I can't remember which one, probably used by some sort of official, priest or advisor.

A basic cloth hat with a stiffening material in it to allow it to stand upright, once your wearing it.

I regularly loose this hat by misjudging the height when walking through doorways.

Grand Bascinet

This what I would call a Grand Bascinet or Battle Helm

This style of Helm was from around the period of 1450 so was worn from the end of the Hundred Years War with France and just before the War of Roses kicked off.

Made by the great armourer David Hewitt of  White Rose Armory in his early learning years, his stuff is full on museum quality today.

I have no picture of me in my full armour wearing this helmet, last worn in battle I believe at a re-enactment of Jack Cades rebellion in 1450 or 1990 in the real world.

The helmet is designed to fix firmly to the back and breast plate, it offers no head movement other the limited movement from space inside the helmet, I found this not my cup of tea for foot combat while you feel pretty invulnerable, you need to be constantly twisting your shoulders to see what is behind you and this effect good balance and your fighting stance,  I much prefer a beaver and sallet.

The helmet hinges apart for access as can be seen above.

Vision is not bad actually you mainly see through the vent holes.

Sometimes Wearing a Sack is Good

Yes its me 

These hoods where made by Julie for creatures called scarecrows in larp event 

Later re-used one for the role a hangman

A Hat for a Character.

This post is not about a tricorn but about a much loved hat.

If any hat qualifies as well worn, this one does, worn over many weekends for last 15 years.

I will say this hat is extremely comfortable.

This is good quality felt tricorn and cost a £ 80 quid or more back when purchase at the end of the last century.

Its been through many fights, been trod on, crushed in the back of car, survived horrendous rainstorms, snow and regularly deals with sand and sweat, its loosing its shape a bit, the crown as lost its stiffness but survives.

The photo above is fairly current taken about 5 months ago, as you can see its not in too a bad condition, the hat not me that is.

 I think its doing so well, simply because it was quality hat to start with.

The early years of the hat it had a black band as above.

I later added a purple band and emblem as the character it belongs to costume mutated as below

I don't Smoke so this is a Leisure Cap

The smoking cap is a hat designed to be worn indoors, whilst not Victorian in origin that is the period I mostly associate with them.

Smoking Cap is pill box hat that is usually worn with a smoking jacket which is thick short velvet or silk jacket.

They were worn by high class gentlemen while drinking port or brandy and smoking Turkish cigarettes & cigars home, both the cap and jacket where worn to stop normal cloths and hair smelling of smoke, they also keep the head warm.

The decorated smoking caps as I'm wearing here is a result Victorian men's sweethearts using their leisure hours to stitch and embroider these caps whilst they were fighting in Crimean war.

Smoking caps became high fashion after dinner wear in the Victorian period, today they are making come back with men and women, however someone has suggested they should now be called the more politically correct 'Leisure Cap'.

Sherlock Holmes Left His Hat Behind

The deerstalker through its association with Sherlock Holmes has become stereotypical headgear for early detectives. 

Its a hat is also still used in rural areas of Britain but dates from the Victorian era when you wore correct fashion to do your deer hunting.

The deerstalker was possibly first associated with the character of Sherlock Holmes in a 1899 play, but it was a book cover illustration that probably cemented the two together. Although it may have been several Basil Rathbones films that final pegged them permanently together.

Made of usually of tweed with its distinctive fore and aft brims and ear flaps that are usually seen tied up at the top of the hat rather than over the ears and tied under the chin.