Pipe smoking: is it only for gentlemen?

Smoking a pipe is a fairly old practice. Men in the early twentieth century smoked pipe tobacco much as cigarettes are smoked today. At that time the gentleman look was very pronounced: jackets with pocket squares were the rule, and neatly slicked hair with a centre parting was another marker.

You only have to look at the well-known pipe smokers of the early 1900s to see it. Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Gary Cooper and Roger Moore all appeared with a pipe in hand. Over the years, however, the pipe has changed hands. Many models have appeared since then, and you can browse a wide choice of pipes.

From the polished gentleman to the bohemian

After the political figures and the well-known authors came the turn of writers and singers to be seen with a pipe. The look, still tidy, drifted slowly towards something more bohemian.

Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens, Claude Brosset and Bernard Herrmann among the writers and singers, but also Jean Piaget and even Jacques-Yves Cousteau on the scientific side. These rather distinctive figures, relaxed and unassuming in appearance, show that the pipe was not confined to any single style.

From the oldest to the youngest

The pipe is an object of value that is often handed down from one generation to the next. Grandfathers pass on their old briar to their grandsons, who in turn try the pipe. The new generation of pipe smokers is therefore much younger, sometimes hipster, sometimes a Paris street type: the pipe crosses the generations. Gentleman or bohemian, the object itself has kept its character.