Red, Burgundy, Royal Blue, Hunter Green, Purple, Black
Dark Brown, Camel, Patterned Wool (email , call or text us (708) 502-1937) with any questions about available patterned wools)
Note: Please note, not all patterned wool varieties we carry are woven closely enough use in making a dagged design, with edges left clean-cut. Because of this, we have limited color selections for this product. Please also note the difficulty of accurately representing colors on a variety of monitors, the color names are meant as descriptions along with the swatches. Please use both when deciding on what color to order. Despite how the colors may appear on your monitor the same color names in Wool, Silk and Linen are different and do not exactly coordinate.
Fifteenth century fashion is nothing, if not dramatic, and a part of that drama comes from the panoply of headgear worn by both sexes throughout the period. We’ve chosen four different styles for our men’s line that run the gamut from practical to outright outlandish; The Stuffed Chaperone, The Italianate Hat, The Acorn Hat and The Sock Hat. The Stuffed Chaperone was a natural evolution of the rolled hood that became popular with fashionable courtiers and magnates in the late 14th century. The rolled face of the hood is replaced with a stuffed tube that forms the body of the hat, but the dagged “cock’s comb” and long liripipe remain for dramatic effect. This was a poplar hat with the nobility, knights and wealthy merchants, and is periodically seen on well-born women, particularly when worn with a houppelande or the old-fashioned sideless surcoat or worn by gentlemen men with cotte or doublet. This hat has different looks depending on how you choose to arrange the dags and tail.
Detail from miniature of the Duke of Burgundy and His Court by Rogier Van Der Weyden circa 1477
Detail from fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli of the Journey of the Magi in the chapel of the Palazzo de Medici-Riccardi in Florence Italy circa 1459
Drawing after Gaston Phebus’ Book of Hunting circa late 14th c. MS francais 616 in The Bibliotethque National Paris, France
Drawing after “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville” circa 1357 Add. Ms. 24189 in The British Museum, London, England
Drawing after A Middle Class Wedding by Jacques Legrand, Livre de Bonnes Moeurs, Paris Bnf, ms fr. 1023 fol. 60V circa 1410
As folks who live in our historical clothes we naturally have favorites and the 15th c. hat that developed out of the Wool Dagged Hood of the late 14th c. is a staff favorite. Its crazy and expressive and it just makes you wonder what the first medieval guy was thinking when he put his hood on his head upside down and inside out! It’s our bet there were some libations involved!
When shopping with us in person our customers often ask us to show them how to make their hoods in chaperones so we decide our long distance web customers also needed a visual primer to refer to. It really pretty simple, just like any new technique it just takes a little practice. Basically take your hood by the ‘face opening’ and start rolling it the outside. Then keep rolling until you almost can’t roll in any further. At that point, you should have a nice, thick roll – this is the brim of your chaperone. Put the chaperone on your head and adjust the the dags accordingly to taste – they can go to both sides, all directions or just one to side. The dags effectively end up looking like crazy, dagged hair and flop in all directions. Other options are draping the liripipe (long tail) around the neck, tucking it into the brim or winding it around the brim. We can document the chaperone worn in all these variations. So, be bold, experiment, have fun!
A lord shares a drink with other nobles at a feast, showing off his daring hunter green chaperone with his subtle (by comparison) black and gold brocade houppelande. His white undershirt peaks out just so from his sleeves, while his black simple hose are hidden from view by the length of his houppelande and his tall riding boots, which are gartered in place. He finishes the look with an ornate belt at the waist.
A daring lady shows of her bold fashion choices with a bright red wool chaperone, made all the more stark with her more subtle camel wool frontlace gown. Her white underdress peaks out from the split sleeves of her gown, bunching up at the wrists where her gloves end. She wears a pair of simple, yet no less bold, red linen stockings, held in place with garters, and finishes the look with a pair of brown ankle boots and a bright red leather belt.
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