Thursday 27 May 2010

Yachting Caps (derision rightly directed at)

Captain JP has a yachting cap dilemma. It is a knotty problem, the hat thing. Many sailors of enormous experience and seniority regard the Breton cap as a symbol of authority. But many younger, ruder sailors say wearing a Breton cap is a sure sign of moral turpitude and mental collapse. And fashion brain-death.
What is clear is that the cap, a practical and stylish tile especially for those of us who might be follically challenged, is now under attack. I blame the rise of the moronic baseball cap. And of course this image, from the funniest film ever, Some Like it Hot:

5 comments:

JP said...

LOL! Yup, that pretty much sums it up for me.

That "Some like it Hot" pic is priceless

Gavin Atkin said...

It's tricky, as you say.

The only kind of person entitled to wear a Breton fisherman's cap is surely a Breton fisherman - but I seem to know lots of perfectly decent coves who wear them without irony, or even a trace of Brittany about them.

To me, though, the greatest mystery is how they keep them in place when sailing. Are they only worn on land, perhaps?

doryman said...

I could probably wear a Breton cap and get away with it, since I've never seen one around here...
In the Pacific Northwest, it's the Greek fisherman's cap. One should only wear a Greek fisherman's cap if one is Greek and a fisherman.

And possibly - follically challenged.

I'm for the moronic baseball cap, myself.
doryman

Pat said...

Billed caps are perfectly appropriate -- in an aftershave commercial.

Unknown said...

In Part, this is about pop culture vs. not. Personally, I say screw it and wear what you damned well please. I for one love the Breton Hat, because I love history, I love the look, and was drawn to it by digging into my own ancestry. At least it has some culture to it! As for "the only person who should wear..." well that's BS. We all have history and ancestry that reaches to a myriad of places and influences who we are. What's wrong with carrying that through to the present day? We are so culturally bereft that when little slices of it show up they are ridiculed and belittled. I live in SW Wisconsin, I wear a French Fur trade era Capote I made, I have a pattern for making my own Breton Cap, and I sail the Mississippi and wear my cap on the back of a tractor farming Mayan and Italian Corn.