Costume: fanciful, historical, and theatrical . J) THE HORNED HEAD-DRESS. wire or cane frames to do their duty with greatersuccess ; and to accentuate further their importancethere were great wings on either side, so widely setthat the passing of a doorway was a difficulty. Priests and husbands inveighed alike againstthis fashion, and one monk felt its absurditiesso acutely that he rode through the provinces,deploring the excess of the hennin as of equal^gravity with that of gambling and the throwing otdice. He preached this doctrine so plausibly thathe induced the easily-aroused populace to c
Costume: fanciful, historical, and theatrical . J) THE HORNED HEAD-DRESS. wire or cane frames to do their duty with greatersuccess ; and to accentuate further their importancethere were great wings on either side, so widely setthat the passing of a doorway was a difficulty. Priests and husbands inveighed alike againstthis fashion, and one monk felt its absurditiesso acutely that he rode through the provinces,deploring the excess of the hennin as of equal^gravity with that of gambling and the throwing otdice. He preached this doctrine so plausibly thathe induced the easily-aroused populace to chasein the streets the women who were wearing the 42 COSTUME CHAP. hennin, and even to spatter them with mud orpelt them with stones. Such enthusiasm, however,like the photographs of Hiawatha, failed com-pletely ; and after the departure of the prophet,hennins grew and ever grew, and they were deckedwith jewels and hung with chains, and all the bestobtainable prodigalities of fashion were consecratedto their HEAD-DRESS OF JEWELLED VELVET AND LAWN. Attention was given, not only to the horned head-dress, which developed into two high points curledinward with pendent veils from the tops, but alsoto the turban, made after the fashion of those wornin the East. It had thick rolls of silk or velvet roundthe head, the hair being pulled up the centre andworn hanging down the back, a drapery assistingin the Oriental effect. The escoffion—for which,although it is said to have been introduced byEngland, there is no English word—is crescent-shaped like a turban ; and a cap which receivedsome patronage was heart-shaped, made of em- IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 43 broidered material decked with a trellis-work of braid ornamented with beads, the wide band in front being set with precious stones, which again took the form of a heart as they rested upon the forehead. The w^omen of the middle classes wore cloth caps and bands of material twisted round the head, with wings on either side.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectcostume, bookyear1906
