Product description

PRISONER BEANIE “MATAFS FORÇATS”

-100 % Ecological VIRGIN WOOL.
-Knitting Coast Squeezed 2/2 and Ultra Resisting.
-Preparation according to patronage Hat Commando.
-Roll Different for every model.
-Number Struck on an Aluminium sheet trained for the hand.
– Made by hand in FRANCE with passion.

The Hat prisoner ” SAILORS CONVICTS ” is made in a old French Family Hosiery in French BRITTANY.

4 Numbers Struck on a White Iron Plate ….
In the French Guyana prison “Le Bagne” (1795-1946), the habit makes the monk or rather designates the Truand and the duration of his sentence.

The beanie marks the time of the atonement. Life-sentenced prisoners wear a green cap; before 1830, they were also marked, with a hot iron, on the shoulder, letters TP, Works Perpetuity.

The red cap is the general mark of those condemned in time but, for some, it is only a transition color. From the red cap, they pass quickly to the green cap, which they often get rid of only at the foot of the scaffold. Sometimes a change of commissioner at the head of the prison brings a new variety of outfit.

“The Last Exile, history of convicts and convicts”.

Convicts of the Bagne

The convicts arrived chained by the neck, in groups of twenty-four, the cords or cadenes, on bundles.

Upon arrival, they were shorn, wearing a red woolen coat, a red woolen vest, a white linen shirt, yellow linen trousers and a pair of iron shoes without stockings. .

They also wore a woolen cap, the color of which indicated the length of the sentence: the red cap for the convicts in time and the green cap for the lifers.

A tin plate, worn on the coat, the vest, and the cap, indicated the matricule of the condemned man. Those who worked outside also received a gray woolen tunic.

The plate attached to the cap, the only metal part of this set, is normally made of white IRON. Sometimes convicts replace it with a serrated hardened steel plate that proves to be a very efficient saw.

The RED marine wool beanie, AN HISTORY …..

Commander Jacques-Yves COUSTEAU was constantly wearing this RED hat as a sign of recognition and as a tribute to the convicts of Toulon who were designated to test the first divers.

Indeed, for fear of risk, the suits were initially tried by prisoners. To differentiate them from other men on ports and boats, they were made to wear red caps.

Thus, Commander COUSTEAU, who owes a great deal to these guinea pigs, paid tribute to them.

This same red cap will become the emblem of marine exploration. In 1995 symbolically, he will even offer one to the American astronauts on the departure for the Mir station, thus marking the recognition of the great explorers.

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