Where does Beret come from?
The beret comes from the western Pyrenees, the mountains between France and Spain. It was the everyday wool cap of shepherds there long before soldiers, painters and fashion designers made it a symbol of France.
A shepherd's cap
The Basque-style beret was the traditional headwear of shepherds in the Ansó and Roncal valleys, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, and shepherds and farmers wore it across Béarn, on the French side. Felted wool kept them warm and shielded them from wind, rain and sun, and the cap could be folded into a pocket. Its name comes from the region too: French béret goes back, through the dialect of Béarn, to Old Gascon berret, 'cap'.
From workshops to factories
Commercial production of the beret began in the 17th century around Oloron-Sainte-Marie, in Béarn. For a long time it stayed a local craft; beret-making became industrialised in the 19th century, and from 1819 the small town of Nay grew into one of its major centres. By 1928 more than 20 French factories, and some in Spain and Italy, were producing millions of berets, and in France and Spain the black beret had become the everyday headgear of workers.
Why people think of Paris
In Britain and America the black beret was once seen as the national cap of France, and it became part of the stereotype of the artist, the poet and the intellectual; Western fashion took it up from the 1920s. But its names point south-west, not to Paris: béret basque in French, Baskenmütze in German. The 'Basque' label caught on largely because the cap was so popular in the Basque Country and because Biarritz, on the Basque coast, became a famous resort in the 19th century.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org ↗ · etymonline.com ↗ · en.tourismepau.com ↗
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