ITEMS OF CLOTHING

HEADWEAR

HEADWARE

VEILS

WIMPLES

HOODS

HATS

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

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 5" 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 Tactium Sanitus 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.

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