The winner of my Hat Prize for Canterbury Faire 2021 requested a formal late 14th – early 15th century headdress to go with her court garb.
The headwear needed to cover all of Elyna’s hair, which was long enough to plait but of random colour – and be wearable alone or under a coronet. Her preferred colours were black and silver.
Research and Design
After going down a few fruitless design dead ends, we ended up with a version of the crespinettes I had made for Tailltui, based on the late 14th century French sculpture of Isabela Bavorska.
This style of headwear was worn by ladies of the nobility in the late 14th-early 15thc, and was known by several names – crespine, crespinette, caul or tire.
Construction
I followed the same basic approach to design and construction as the previous version, but in place of the leno to make the cups, I used linen canvas stiffened with rabbit-skin glue. It worked well and should be more robust against damp and damage.
The intersections of the silver braid are also different. Rather than the small mounts on the gold version, here the braid is threaded through small silver rings interlaced over the joins – a less ornate look.
Afterthoughts
Elyna loved the headdress, but the cases ended up a little too high, so her coronet needed padding to sit properly. The challenges of making something remotely… Now she is no longer wearing the coronet, it works well.
