Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tuque Tuesday!

Seems like the big thing is to have a "day" for your blog, so I'm gonna start a day dedicated to my favorite hat, the tuque... or toque... or touque... whatever you want to call it!



Yeah, I know everyone's like... "fuck those cali guys and their good weather" and all that, but today is actually a good toque day whether you believe it or not. So that said, here's the somewhat official history of our favorite hat -


Historically, the forerunner to the tuque we know today was, in fact, the toque. This small, round, close-fitting hat was popular as early as the 12th and 13th centuries, when women wore embroidered toques made of velvet, satin, or taffeta. Late in the 16th century, brimless, black velvet toques became fashionable with men and women. Throughout the 19th century, women wore toques, often small, trimmed with fur, lace, bows, flowers, or leaves.
The tuque, as its known today throughout Canada, is related to the Phrygian cap, a soft, red, conical hat worn by the inhabitants of Phrygia, a region in what is now modern-day Turkey. This early precursor to the tuque was depicted in sculpture and paintings as a symbol of freedom and the pursuit of liberty. As such, during the 1837 Patriotes Rebellion, a red tuque became a symbol of French-Canadian pride. This symbolism of the tuque was revived again by the Front de Libération du Québec in the 1960s.
Today, tuques maintain both a functional and fashionable purpose. Throughout Canada and, indeed the rest of the world, the tuque is the common name for any of several styles of knit winter hats, designed for keeping the head warm in cold climates. And, with the variety of styles, colors and construction, today’s tuques have once again become a symbol, though now one imagines this symbolism is more about fashion than the liberty and freedom these caps once symbolized.


So, there you have it, the glorious toque and its symbol of freedom... sign me up any day! And because you can't be left with only my beautiful mugg today, here are a couple of famous toques to ponder...




my heroes...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've seen better heads on BEER MUGS!!! HAHA!! --Ray

Craze! said...

What are you trying to say?? Don't hate the beauty...