El Ramuntcho - 1929
A fascinating find! A news article, including photos and business cards, about berets from 1929.
On 29 September 1929, François Malsant of the newspaper _La Gironde_ , reported about the (then new) El Ramuntcho beret factory in Bordeaux.
"A few years ago, it would not have been considered good form to appear in town wearing a Basque beret. It was a purely local attribute that was tolerated, outside its country of origin, only by a few fanciful people. Then, athletes took it up and realized that this headgear, which holds well to the head and allows the hair to be kept in order, regardless of the violent movements of the body, was more pleasant and more practical than any other.”
“Some young women, in turn, noticed that the beret, whether blue, black, white or red, was more flattering to the face than the most charming "bibi", and gave them a very amusing little boyish look. They did not hesitate to adopt it, in some seaside resorts. Then, it was for long car rides, for tennis, for golf, that they used it.”
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Basque tennis player Jean Borotra
“One day, the Prince of Wales, while crossing from Brittain to Bayonne, had, it is said, his hat blown away by a gust of wind. There was a Basque hat shop nearby. He went in and, seeing nothing to his liking, chose a beret. Half an hour later, all the fashionable people of Biarritz were looting the bazaars and coming out wearing berets.
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Women with berets in Deauville
The fashion was launched. It lasted. The Basque beret crossed borders. It is worn in England, the United States, Poland, South America, and Czechoslovakia.”
“The existing factories were no longer sufficient to ensure the necessary production. And, little by little, we saw industrialists dedicating themselves to manufacturing which found increasingly wide outlets.
A factory has recently opened in Bordeaux. It is located, along with large hosiery workshops that are part of the same organization, near the Xaintrailles barracks, a stone's throw from the main boulevards.
We went to visit it, thinking it would interest our readers by revealing the manufacturing processes of the French beret.
It is not, in fact, the large beret of the Spanish provinces that is being prepared here. It is a headdress of medium dimensions, more becoming than the small Landes vine, and less voluminous than the Guipuzcoa beret.”
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Knitting loom
“Looms are responsible for the first operation: knitting the wool. This will produce a knitted clip of soft, short wool, made up of twenty-four quarters, which bears little resemblance to the beret as it will be displayed in the hatter's window. It is not closed and could quite easily be compared to a piece of Brie cheese. It is, moreover, much larger than it should be later, because, after various operations, it will shrink by about 25%.”
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Fulling mill
“Here it is now going through the chain stitching machine , it is then closed. Then, it is the darning, which aims to fill the holes, repair the small manufacturing defects and shape the famous "tail", which will crown the headgear.”
“This is when the most curious work will take place: the fulling . Twenty kilos of moistened berets are piled into a sort of vat. A wooden hammer, driven by an electric motor, will pound them. A determined quantity of soap will activate this operation, after which the knitting, shrinking little by little, will become a beautiful tight felt. Rinsing will then proceed to eliminate all foreign matter.
The berets, removed from the vat, are then wrung out, then they are dyed.”
“The wool used, it is worth noting, is grey. It is only for the manufacture of white berets that a special wool is used, white from the very first operations.
The dyeing, which is done in a kind of paddle boat, lasts, depending on the case, one hour to one and a half hours.”
“Each beret will now be stretched over wooden forms and placed in drying rooms where it will be treated with steam at 50 to 60°. For white berets, sulfur will have to be sent using the Clayton process.
When they have undergone this treatment, the berets will not be far from finished. However, they will still have to undergo two operations before they can be worn.
First, they will move on to scraping. Imagine a small millstone made of natural thistles mounted on a millstone that rotates at a set speed.
The beret is presented on its upper and lower sides, and thus takes on relief. All that remains is to pass it through the clippers, which will remove the excess down.”
“To obtain different sizes, it will be enough to stretch it before proceeding with the filling, that is to say to place a leather inside and to line the bottom with a silk which is generally of a bright color. The machines, driven by charming workers, have completed their role.
The truck, the railway and the ship will begin theirs..."
"Half an hour later, all the fashionable people of Biarritz were looting the bazaars and coming out wearing berets."
beretandboina.blogspot.com/2026/02/el-ramuntcho-192...
#Berets #Hats #Fashion
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