Les Catherinettes

Saint Catherine is popularly, but not officially, the patron saint of: 'philosophers, students and people of learning; wheelwrights, potters, millers, engineers; women without power (maids, servants, virgins, prostitutes, spinsters), nurses, doctors and the dying.' The monastary on Mount Sinai is named for her, as is a chapel in Abbotsbury which inspired PJ Harvey. She earlier inspired the medieval French tradition of Les Catherinettes. Women who had reached the age of twenty-five unmarried would place a cap on a statue of St. Catherine to invoke her blessing. This evolved into the wearing of elaborate hats on her feast day, November 25, and parading through Paris. An extraordinary video shows be-hatted women, carrying hat boxes(?), racing to meet the regal Josephine Baker (who definitely knew how to wear a hat herself) at the finish line.

Berets

'French béret, from French dialectal berret and from Old Provençal berret, cap, both from Late Latin birrus, hooded cloak; see biretta.' Probably starting out in medieval Basque and France, and turning up in Italy as berretti. (There's tons to learn about the social importance of headdress for, as Witold Rybczynski points out, people were very much concerned with status rather than comfort.) Later, perhaps because of their simplicity and adaptability, berets became popular in the military, including the Canadian Armed Forces. Its cache today comes also from its association with artists and of course Che Guevara.