A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

The French hood of the sixteenth century is an interesting garment. Costume designers have been making theatrical version for years that miss the mark, turning them into structured headbands that arc up over the back of the head. So what exactly is a French hood? Not quite a French hood, almost a kokoshnik, from The Tudors I'm not sure what the earliest use of the term is, but Caroline Johnson notes in  The Queen's Servants  that the Princesses Margaret and Mary were issued red and black velvet for French hoods in 1501, on the marriage of Prince Arthur and Katherine of Aragon, and that Margaret brought "three yards of black velvet for hoods, oreillettes and frontlets of the French style" with her to Scotland in 1503. The version of the French hood worn at the time was far from anything that could translate into a headband - a two-layered headdress, with a (typically) black silk piece overlaid on either a band or cap of (typically) red, white, and/or gold. De...

Unlike many members of the fashion history, reenactment, and costuming worlds, I have no favorite era - and lately I'm hard-pressed to find eras that I even dislike . But there is one period that I'm really interested in yet never seem to get the chance to explore. Portrait of Catherine of Aragon , Michael Sittow, ca. 1503; Kunsthistorisches GG_5612 The overall theme of the periods I like is that they're just before more popular eras - here, the years before Henry VIII's reign. In most cases, the popular era features more exaggerated sleeves, necklines, skirt shapes, etc. than the earlier one, and this period is no exception! I've thought from time to time about joining the SCA, and this is at the top of my list for eras I might focus on. (Others include the High Middle Ages (11th-13th centuries) for the bliaut, and the early 14th century for the high-waisted houppelande.)