Clothes of the Common People In Elizabethan and Early Stuart England

Volume 19: Hats and Caps.

introduction:

This volume covers both men's and women's headwear, or the lack of it, but excludes women's linen headwear such as kerchers, cloths and coifs. These are covered in Volume 23 which deals with women's linens in general.

Headwear at this time is grouped into two main terms, hats and caps. As will be seen below hats include a wide variety of materials including felted wools, paste board and straw, and caps are normally made of knitted wool with a few types made of woven fabrics. The shape is less linked to the name than to the nature of the materials and objects such as the “hatt capp” issued by Monmouthshire to levy soldiers in 1602 indicate a fuzziness in the definitions at the period.

Contents:

Historical Management Associates Ltd. makes a range of historically-correct fabrics such as frieze, kersey, russet, cotton and say.