ITEMS OF CLOTHING

HEADWEAR

HEADWARE

VEILS

WIMPLES

HOODS

HATS

Women's Hats of the Middle Ages
THE BYCOCKET - THE STRAW HAT - OTHER HATS

The Bycocket
This is the hat generally described in the modern day as the Robin Hood hat and it was worn by both men and women.

Carved into a beautiful ivory mirror case from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is an image of a noble woman riding and wearing a bycocket style over her veil. The mirror case is of Parisian make and is dated to 1320 and is five inches high.

A hat, probably felted and often decorated with feathers worn with the brim turned up either before or behind. It was widely worn by men of all classes during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Images and iconography also suggest that this style was also popular with the upper classes, especially for outdoor activities such as riding and hunting.

The Straw hat
The basic form and function of the straw hat has remained unchanged throughout the centuries. As today, the medieval straw hat was worn by both men and women for protection against the sun. many paintings show women wimpled for sun protection instead of hatted, although this was probably a personal choice and not regulated or prohibited by any laws.

Both workers in the field and the merchant classes are recorded as having worn woven hats or plaited hats of straw. Shown at left is a detail from the Manesse Codox and shows a woman gathering wheat in the fields wearing what appears to be a straw hat. Later time periods show clearer images of women in straw hats like the 1490 Grimani Breviary detail for the month of June.

Other hats
Some illuminations show images of women workers on the fields wearing hats which are coloured and non-textures. It appears that these are not straw, but it is unclear what they are made of. It in entirely possible that these may be felted wool hats, although there is no written reference to felted wool hats which I have seen.

The image detail shown at left comes from the bottom border of a page from The Romance of Alexander dated 1338-1344. The woman appears to be wearing a pink hat which almost matches her gown. In the same border, a woman in a blue gown wears a blue hat of similar design.

Copyright © Rosalie Gilbert
All text & photographs within this site are the property of Rosalie Gilbert unless stated.
Artifact images remain the property of the owner.
Images and text may not be copied and used without permission.