Saturday, 9 November 2013

The background of BEANIE

 Beanie, beanie, bean-ie... does it remind you of beans? Well, this is not that far from the truth because when you look at some photos of people wearing this cap on their heads it really looks a bit like bean because of the extra fabric on the top of their heads.
This cap is to be worn in cold weather which started really early this year. It is made of wool or synthetic fibers, but its function is to protect its owner from cold ears. A funny thing is you have to be careful with the countries where you speak of beanies - if you wanted "beanie" in a US store, you would get a baseball cap instead of a knitted cap.
The roots of the today knitted cap grow into the 15th century when a "Monmouth cap", a woolen cap, was favourite by soldiers, mariners and labourers. Monmouth was a town in Wales in the UK known for breeding of sheep with high-quality wool from which among other products woolen caps were made. They became popular soon and were exported. An act in the UK from 1488 banned wearing of caps not made in the UK therefore caps from Monmouth became even more popular.
They have their own beanie in Canada too, they call it "tuque". Tuque´s predecessor was a textile red cap that indicated person´s political attitude during the Revolution in France. Do you have a red beanie? Then you would be a supporter of liberty and freedom in the revolutionary France and you would stand on the barricades and shout "Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité!". You would also look like an imp... or Papa Smurf.  
Would you believe old Greeks had their own beanies too? It was called "Phrygian cap" and was worn by those who were influenced by the Eastern "barbarian" influence. In old Rome they had a cap similar to our beanie too, it was, once again, a symbol of liberty followed up by the French revolution.
From this little historical excursion you can deduce that beanies are worn by freethinking laid-back people... and maybe a few others that are just cold.

File:Judgement Paris Altemps Inv8563 n2.jpg
(Picture 2: Phrygian cap, source:

Carlson, Jennifer: 2008. A Short History of the Monmouth Cap., 11. 10. 2013.
Wikipedia. Phrygian cap., 11. 10. 2013.


  1. great post! I didn't know beanies had so much history. :)

    1. Thank you, I am glad my post is informative for others :)

