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No (written) posts over the next 32 days or so... A family trip to the Netherlands, for the first time since our emigration almost 10 years ago. A good enough excuse to temporarily stop blogging, I think, but as usual during my holidays: every day an interesting, funny, sexy, embarrassing or simply magnificent beret-related picture (like these two beautiful Russian photographs).

South Pacific Berets and South Pacific Cowboy remain "open" during my absence and I'll do my best to continue sending out orders by remote control. In the worst case scenario, orders after today may take 5 weeks till delivery...

Till mid-May, all the best to you all! 

Cluny Brown with Jennifer Jones

Cluny Brown is a 1946 film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch.

The time is just prior to World War II. Lovely Cluny Brown (Jennifer Jones) is the niece of a London plumber; when her uncle is indisposed, Cluny rolls up her sleeves and takes a plumbing job at a society home, where she meets a handsome Czech author (Charles Boyer) - a refugee who has fled the Nazis and now resides with a snobbish and stuck-up family. Hoping to advance herself socially, Cluny accepts a position as a maid in a fancy country home, where she once more meets the Czech author, who is a house guest; they promptly fall for each other, and Cluny follows his lead by turning her nose up at stiff-necked English propriety.
Also, please be advised that today is the last day to order from South Pacific Berets / Cowboy and have it shipped to you within 24 hours!

Arch of Triumph with Ingrid Bergman

Arch of Triumph is a 1948 US war romance film made by Enterprise Productions. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone and adapted from the 1945 Erich Maria Remarque novel Arch of Triumph.

The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Charles Laughton with Louis Calhern.

Pre-World War II Paris is crowded with illegal refugees, trying to evade deportation. One of them is Dr. Ravic (Charles Boyer), who under a false name practices medicine illegally, helping other refugees. He saves Joan Madou (Ingrid Bergman) from committing suicide after the sudden death of her lover. They become involved, but he is deported and she becomes the mistress of a wealthy man, Alex (Stephen Bekassy). All this time Ravic seeks revenge against the Nazi officer Haake (Charles Laughton), with war eventually declared between France and Germany.

The film was remade as a made-for-television film, Arch of Triumph, in 1985 with Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Ravic.

South Pacific Berets Closes for Four Weeks

To all (potential) customers of South Pacific Berets:

From 14 April through 14 May I won't be able to process any orders, going on both a family holiday to my native Netherlands, as well as travelling through Belgium, France and hopefully the Czech Republic, researching material for the Beret Project (the book that is still in the making).

All orders placed on 13 April or before will (as always) be send out within 24 hours; orders placed during my absence will be send first thing on the 15th of May. 

The Beret Project meanwhile, continues with pictures of interesting beret-related pictures every day.

Nancy Talbot

Nancy Talbot (1920 - 2009) was an American businesswoman who co-founded the Talbots women's retail clothing chain with her husband, Rudolf Talbot.

Talbot was born Nancy Orr in Charlevoix, Michigan, which was the location of her family's summer home.

Talbot left college in 1944 to take a position with the Red Cross and was assigned to a military reconnaissance unit in France near the end of World War II. It was in France where she met her future husband, Rudolf Talbot. The couple married in 1945.

Rudolf and Nancy started a clothing store, which they first called Talbots in a single-family clapboard house in Hingham, Massachusetts. The couple painted the Talbots store's door red, which remains a trademark of Talbots stores up to the present day.

Nancy and Rudolf opened three new stores in Connecticut and Massachusetts during the next 10 years in order to target female consumers who were relocating to the suburbs following World War II. Rudolf Talbot focused on expanding the Talbots company, while Nancy worked as the commpany's buyer, purchasing agent and held creative control over the merchandise. They dropped their mens' and children's clothing lines gradually to focus exclusively on women's apparel.

As of 2009, Talbots has 586 locations and more than $1.5 billion in revenue in 2009.

Nancy Talbot died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease on August 30, 2009, at her home in Boulder, Colorado, at the age of 89.

Painter with Penguin and Beret

More ceramics: painter with a penguin and, of course, a beret. No details, no information - I am sorry.

Rudolph Valentino

In 1926 the tragic and untimely death of a silent screen actor caused female moviegoers to riot in the streets and in some cases to commit suicide - that actor was Rudolph Valentino. Ballroom dancer Valentino manipulated his good looks and animal-like grace into a Hollywood career. His smouldering love making, tinged with a touch of masterful cruelty, expressed a sexuality which was at once both shocking and sensual.

Valentino is a Ken Russell film very loosely based on the life of Rudolph Valentino as recounted in the book Valentino, an Intimate Exposé of the Sheik, written by Chaw Mank and Brad Steiger. The film starred Rudolf Nureyev, Michelle Phillips, Leslie Caron, and Carol Kane.

Nuryev with unknown dog

The film was a commercial and critical failure. Most reviewers agreed there was 'too much sex' and sub-par acting, including that of the leads. Many felt that the historical inaccuracies had not gotten past 'the legend to the man'.

Russell fans were not pleased with the film, and the director himself later denounced it, saying, 'What idiot made this?' The film cost $5 million, his most expensive film to that date. The commercial failure almost ended his career.

Natacha Rambova, wife of Rudolph Valentino

Magnus Agustsson's 'Lady with Beret'

Dr. Magnus Agustsson never abandoned his artistic interests during his busy medical career. He studied sculpture for seven years at Rockford College (Il.). Ever curious, he explored different media, producing works in marble and other stones, bronze, clay and wood, while experimenting in form from realism to abstract expression.

Women Only

Does there really have to be a section specifically for women? No, since Marlene Dietrich caused a scandal in the 1920's by wearing a ("man's") Basque beret (and starting a collection of 64 berets in the end...), women have been wearing the beret in great numbers. 

There is a difference though. Where women can wear "men's" berets without problem, they can also wear the very large, soft and floppy berets that many men would shy away from (although great to cover a Rastafarians hairdo as well!).

These berets at S.P.B. are large (33cm/13"), floppy, made of 100% soft cotton and available in four colours (and nowhere else outside South Pacific Berets!) @ only $17.50.

János Vaszary

János Vaszary (1867—1938) was a Hungarian painter. 

János Vaszary, Lady with blue beret

He was born in Kaposvár, Hungary. His masters included Bertalan Székely at the School of Decorative Art. He went on with his studies in Munich and at the Académie Julian in Paris. He was particularly influenced by Jules Bastien-Lepage and Puvis de Chavannes. He painted pictures with a social message ("Servant", 1902). His pictures of soldiers of World War I are particularly moving. 

János Vaszary, Courtship

Later he painted expressionistic visions Golgotha. His style, witty and superficial as influenced by French art, often changed. The influence of Fauvism, Matisse, Dufy and Van Dongen are present in his works. After his visit to Paris, he painted pictures of towns in delicate colours. As a teacher of art, he supported avant garde trends.

Pōtae Nika

Yes, the Pōtae Nika (or 'Black Beret', in Te Reo Maori) have come in: South Pacific's  own Basque berets in black pure wool.

Heavy weight berets (well over 100 grams) in a 30cm/11.8" diameter at the very competitive price of $24.95 and obviously, only available at South Pacific Berets. 

Euan Uglow

Euan Uglow was born in London in 1932. 

He went to Strand School before studying at Camberwell College of Arts from 1948 to 1950 under William Coldstream. When Coldstream left to teach at the Slade School of Art, University College London (University of London) in 1951, Uglow transferred there as well. In 1954, as a conscientious objector, he began two years in building work and farming. Starting in 1961, he himself was to teach part-time at the Slade School, continuing for many years. 

Girl in a Green Dress (The Beret)

His early figurative style adapted a form of planar drawing derived from Alberto Giacometti's work of the 1920s and applied it to a Classical structure, derived from Paul Cézanne, with an intensity of colour unrivalled by his teachers of the Euston Road School. Musicians (1953; London, Tate) reinterpreted the Impressionist theme of figures in a landscape by combining directly observed elements with a deliberately contrived backdrop.

Milton Avery

Milton Avery was an American painter and printmaker from Connecticut (b 1893). 

He grew up supporting his family, taking on multiple jobs and often sacrificing his own potential for success. For some time he worked night shifts at a tire and rubber company so that he could paint during the daytime. He gained financial footing upon his marriage to Sally Michel, an illustrator, in 1926. Due to Michel's personal success and affluence, Avery was able to focus his efforts on painting in New York. He had his first solo exhibition in 1935 at the Valentine Gallery, and developed friendships with some of the major abstract expressionists of the time, namely Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko. The Phillips Collection of DC was the first to purchase one of his paintings.

Often likened to Matisse, Milton Avery painted with a minimal palette, preferring to depict simple forms. His paintings are rather flat, with some repetition of pattern and "large areas of glowing colour," as described by the Tate. He began by producing landscapes, using a thick application of paint via palette knife as well as a fair balance of simplification and detail (think Matisse's ability to use detail while maintaining simplification- very similar). 

His work transitioned out of detail to strong abstraction circa 1944, adopting "crisply delineated forms." In 1949 he had a heart attack, and on after produced a great amount of monotype prints and muted, thinly washed paintings.

From the Archives of American Art

Avery died in 1965 at the age of 72 in New York, leaving a lasting impact on the abstract expressionists of the 50s. His work has been acquired by many major art museums worldwide, and is the namesake of Bard's Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts.

From FourColoursFourWords