- The Crispine - A cap made of net, similar to a caul
- The Frontlet - Also called a cross-cloth or a binding-cloth. Sometimes worn with a coif. Worn when women were ill in bed after being soaked in herbs
Elizabethan Hats for Women - a comment dating back to 1583. During the Elizabethan era pamphlets were printed and distributed commenting on life in Elizabethan England. A writer of one such pamphlet was a well travelled Londoner called Philip Stubbes. He was believed to have been born c1555 and died c1610. He was well educated and attended both Oxford and Cambridge University. He was also a strict Elizabethan Puritan and held firm views on any social practices which, in his view were, unfitting true Christians. He named his work " The Anatomie of Abuses " in which he strongly criticised many of the fashions and clothing worn during the Elizabethan era. It was entered in the Stationers' Register on 1 March 1583. This pamphlet includes his view and some valuable information about Elizabethan Hats for Women"Than, on toppes of these stately turrets ( I meane their goodly heads wherin is more vanitie than true Philosophie now and than) stand their other capitall ornaments, as french hood, hat, cappe, kercher, and such like; wherof some be of velvet, some of taffetie, some (but few) of woll, some of this fashion, some of that, and some of this color, some of that, according to the variable fantasies of their serpentine minds. And to such excesse it is grown, as every artificers wyfe (almost) wil not stick to go in her hat of Velvet everye day, every marchants wyfe and meane Gentlewomen in her french-hood, and everye poore Cottagers Daughter in her taffatie hat, or else of woll at least, wel lined with silk, velvet or taffatie. They have also other ornaments besydes these to furnish foorth their ingenious heads, which they call cawles, made Netwyse, to th' ende, as I thinke, that the clothe of gold, cloth of silver, or else tinsell (for that is the worst) wherwith their heads are covered and attyred withall underneath their cawles maye appeare, and shewe it selfe in the bravest maner. So that a man that seethe them would thinke them to have golden heads. And some weare Lattice cappes with three hornes, three corners I should saie, like the forked cappes of the Popishe Priestes, with their perriwincles, chitterlynges, and the like apishe toyes of infinite varietie." Interesting Facts and Information about Elizabethan Hats for Women Some interesting facts and confirmation of information about Elizabethan Hats for Women can be obtained from the words of Philip Stubbes. A first hand impression of the fashions of the Elizabethan era are invaluable - but the Elizabethan style of writing can be hard going. The following information has therefore been taken from the points he made on Hats for women: - The style of hats are referred to as a French hood, cappe, cawl and kercher
- A kercher was a common term for a kerchief (from the French couvre-chef, "cover the head") and was a triangular or square piece of cloth tied around the head or around the neck for protective or decorative purposes
- Lattice cappes - another term for a cawl or hairnet
- The materials that hats were made of were velvet, taffeta and wool - Cloth of gold, cloth of silver or tinsell was also used for hats
- Tinsell was a fabric was had a metallic sheen but was less expensive than gold or silver
- His description of the hats with three horns / corners sound like the hats which were highly fashionable during an earlier Medieval period
English Laws Sumptuary Laws dictated the styles of hats for Elizabethan English women. Between the years 1568 and 1574 “all Citizens wives in generall were constrayned to weare white knit Caps of woolen yarne, unlesse their husbands were good value in the Queenes booke, or could prove themselves Gentlemen by descent. |