How to Fillet a Beret

Question: What do Pablo Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Ernesto “Ché” Guevara, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder, John Houston, Lauren Bacall and Greta Garbo all have in common (sometimes)? Answer: a beret. Simple, comfortable and charming; such is the secret of the head garment that has enjoyed diverse popularity as perhaps the only truly unisex hat in millinery history.  Here in Spain they are called boinas, and two of the most important factories in Spain are in the Basque Country: La Encartada in Balmaseda and Boinas Elósegui in Tolosa, on the outskirts of Bilbao and San Sebastián, respectively.

I recently visited La Encartada, which unfortunately shut down operations in 1992. It is now a quaint museum where one can wander through its ghostly factory floors and the abandoned private bedrooms of its ex-owners. Each machine was of the latest innovation during the times of the industrial revolution, notably, imported spinning machines from Platt Brothers Ltd. of Oldam UK, turbines from Germany, and a little later, looms from Catalonia. All of these heavy machines, as well as the smaller darners, menders and de-fuzzers were run by an extensive, elaborate system of gears, drive trains, belts and universal joints, centrally powered by a rotary turbine from the flow of the nearby river Cadagua.

The origin of the beret has not been pinned down with certainty, but it can be traced to similar head ornaments from the Bronze Age. During many permutations, the accessory has enjoyed its major, modern influence in the south of France and the north of Spain, although its versatility has ensured its placement on all kinds of fashionable, and not-so fashionable, heads.

Faye Dunaway

Brigitte Bardot

Carole Lombard

Greta Garbo

Katherine Hepburn

Marlene Dietrich

In the 20^th century it became fundamental as a military accoutrement. The legend goes that Goebbels was fascinated by the beret of Franco’s own propaganda tsar, Serrano Suñer (who it is also said was considered “the real fly in the ointment” by his German counterpart, as per British historian Paul Preston). Nowadays it is still worn in these parts and the south of France. The writer of this blog has been a lifelong witness to a man who dons it everywhere -during the fall and winter with a Loden coat, in early spring with a Burberry raincoat- in a daily display of the Basque tradition (I must abstain from posting a picture in order to avoid my mother’s “and you querida, you better not encourage him!”)

Last year, Loreak Mendian, a Basque fashion brand, did a special edition of berets in collaboration with Boinas Elósegui which was pretty successful, but I thought they could have pushed the fun factor a bit more, while still paying homage to the hat’s original roots. To be fair, the central tail or stem, (txortena in Basque) was maintained, a detail which I truly appreciated. During my visit to the old factory I learned that, contrary to conventional wisdom, that little tail is not the beginning or the end of the fabric, but a final touch to cover the hole of the weaved cloth. Hence if you pull it the beret will not disintegrate like a cat in a cartoon.

typical "putxera"

After our guided tour of the plant, we shared a typical “putxera” – a big metal pot traditionally used to prepare food for the crew on the trains and heated by the same coal from the steam engines-to taste the warming red beans with “sacraments” (chorizo, black pudding, fatback, pork ribs). In this Basque Country of mine, everything has a religious connotation and food is one thing that is always sacred. I once heard with my own ears a priest in his Sunday homily comparing the virtues of Our Lady with the pig: “everything is good, everything is worthy”. This glorious metaphor was spoken in a little XII century Romanesque chapel called San Pelayo, in the Biscay cost, and it was certainly worthy, some would say indisputable.

A great homage to a tradition that started on 1892 and lasted a century in Balmaseda.