The Wall Street Journal - 07.03.2020 - 08.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, March 7 - 8, 2020 |D3

STYLE & FASHION

wool toppers. I admire these

men. Their chapeaux look cozy

and they wear them with a

“Hat? What hat? Am I wearing

a hat?” indifference that I

imagine you magically develop

the moment you first slip an

AARP card into your wallet.

I never see young men

wearing berets—maybe be-

cause they haven’t had time to

master that unconcerned

swagger. “We’re really not see-

ing a very young group of guys

coming in here, going, ‘Oh, I

want a beret,’” said Aida

O’Toole, the owner of J.J. Hat

Center in Midtown Manhattan.

From her descriptions, the tar-

get market seems to be artsy

baby boomers who fancy them-

selves boho Francophiles.

Twentysomethings like me?

We wear beanies. Innocuous

knit beanies, in which we could

never be mistaken for a preten-

tious Pierre/Phillipe/Jacques

manqué. (To be fair, in my ob-

servation, French men rarely

wear berets these days, per-

haps well aware of the clichés.)

The hat wasn’t always

spurned by the under-50

crowd, explained Rosabelle

Forzy, CEO of Laulhère, a 180-

year-old French beret-maker,

who said that in the hat’s early

days, all kinds wore a beret—

men and women, young and

old. Shepherds and farmers

donned them throughout the

Basque Country and the briskly

breezy Pyrenees to keep their

têtes toasty. A beret “was

something you put on like a

sweater,” said Ms. Forzy. Yet,

some young men are bucking

the beret’s connection to the

elderly. Today, while men of an

advanced age purchase most of

Laulhère’s berets, fervent

young fans in Japan are a curi-

ous exception. Ms. Forzy spec-

ulated that Japan is just

“quicker” than the rest of the

world in adopting trends. And

Italy, to its credit, seems to be

catching up—Italian fashion

brands like Marni and Gucci re-

cently sent beret-wearing mod-

els down their menswear run-

ways.

Still, the beret comes with

baggage. Over time, the hat has

been associated with mockable

caricatures: Parisian street

vendors (curly-q mustache and

Breton-striped shirt optional);

the most grating undergrad in

M

EN INberets

are not rari-

ties in my

neighbor-

hood. Sure, I

live in New York, a city amena-

ble to characters who think

nothing of wearing a petite,

pancake-shaped cap associated

with mimes. Despite their rela-

tive ubiquity, the two or three

bereted passersby I see each

day still distract me. The hats

are almost always black or

navy and the men who wear

them are, as a rule, at least 60.

Some of them stoop a little

as they pass, giving me a bet-

ter look at the radial cap tilted

on their heads. Grey hair often

pokes out from under their

BYJACOBGALLAGHER

DAVE URBAN

Inspired by his well-hatted elders, one beret-curious twentysomething tests the

notoriously tricky accessory

BeretorNay?

Call it convertible

footwear: Designed with

collapsible backs, these shoes

can morph from professional

slip-ons to appealingly

slovenly mules. At right, we

show each pair both ways—

square and squashed

StepOnIt—orDon’t

Loafers,$730, Gucci, 212-826-2600

The Timeless Transformers

Loafers,$690, loewe.com

The Croc-Stamped Chameleons

your comparative literature

seminar; disciples of the com-

munist revolutionary Che Gue-

vara, whose bereted visage is

plastered on $15 T-shirts.

Women have achieved greater

success with the hat: Twiggy,

Princess Diana and Rihanna, to

name a few, have pulled off be-

ret-chic convincingly.

While the hat’s cheesy repu-

tation gave me pause, the dis-

tinguished beret wearers in my

neighborhood convinced me.

At 28, I set out, precariously, to

brave my first beret. Before

putting one on, however, I

sought advice from my elders.

Mark Large, 49, a decorator in

London, has worn berets for

many years, describing them

as a “bit more casual than a fe-

dora.” He recommended

smaller models that aren’t as

jester-hat floppy. Todd DiCiur-

cio, 47, an artist in New York,

cautioned that wearing a beret

is a “look” (shorthand for a

dramatic, potentially startling

fashion choice) and suggested I

keep it classic with a no-non-

sense Laulhère original.

With that in mind, I by-

passed the leather beret by

Swedish brand Our Legacy that

I’d spotted in a boutique (an

advanced option I figured I

might attempt in time) and in-

stead wore my compact, black

Laulhère version one evening

to meet friends at a bar. One

cohort examined me and flatly

said I looked “good.” I thought,

“That’s also what you tell

someone who just received a

horrific haircut.” My confi-

dence eroded further when an-

other friend whined, “Do I have

to sit near you?” as if the be-

ret’s pomposity was conta-

gious. The harshest assess-

ment came from my fiancé. She

took one look and, in a tone

that made me wonder if my

nuptials were at risk, said,

“Take it off.” I sheepishly

tucked the hat into my pocket.

The next morning, I gave it

another go, plopping the wool

disc on my head. Despite the

beret’s apparent currency

among Japanese youth, I was

sure I looked like the pathetic,

passé American idea of a

Frenchman. “Je suis Jacob,” I

jokingly barked to myself, ex-

hausting my entire command

of French. The hat was as

convincing as my accent. The

beret stayed home. Maybe in

30 years, I’ll try again.

Espadrilles,$545, tods.com F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, STYLING BY ANNE CARDENAS

The Suede Shape-Shifters

Leather Beret,

$220,

ourlegacy.se

Hat Pursuit

Ranging from

traditional to

trendy, these five

fashionable flat

caps will suit

daring dressers

in every age

bracket.

Wool Beret,

$125,

borsalino.com

Wool Beret,

$350, Gucci,

212-826-2600

Laulhère Wool

Beret,$162, +33

142659059

Marni Twill

Beret,$370,

dpto.la

Bohemian

Plaid

Dapper

Quirky

Authentic