Billboard Berets

Look out your window and chances are you'll see a number of baseball-caps with all sort of logos and embroidered advertising going by. And it's not that they pay people to wear these, often the wearer paid a steep price to acquire the piece of commercial advertising.

The beret is not completely immune to this phenomenon, but it tends to be more with a wink and less commercially motivated.






One can find the more souvenir-type berets, like this grey one from Arieges Pyrénées







or this one with Montmartre outlined in white:




Plenty of boinas with a variety of Basque symbols, flags and crosses:










Then there are the berets that carry all sort of messages; whether it's about being 'with your head in the clouds' or that 'life is beautiful'

Or you can reinforce the myth that the beret really is a painter's attribute

I personally really like these berets, handmade by U.S. company Hoodlums. It is the Sanskrit syllable "Om" or "Aum", a mystical and sacred sound in the Indian/Tibetan religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Bön, Jainism and Sikhism).

I wear mine before, during and after meditations and have imported a small number for sale through South Pacific Berets. These are not cheap as these are handmade; cut and sewn out of two berets to create one.