| The "Pill Box Hat" Question |
| The question, can I just wear a pillbox hat? was posed by a friend of mine. This was my response. The question “pillbox” hats is a difficult one, because I’m not certain you mean what I think you might mean, so I’m going to give you a quick and dirty guide to headress from the 8th through the 14th century. |
| 8th, 9th, 10th & 11th century: Young maidens wore hair uncovered. Married women or women past their girlhood wore a “head rail” which is a fairly long piece of white linen, about 24-27 inches wide and long enough to cross under the chin and wrap around the neck. It was often held on the head by a cloth cord or a narrow circlet of some kind. This is the kind of headress that Mistress Ellesaid usually wears. A variant is the long oval veil of the kind Duchess Deille usually wears. |
| 12th & 13th century, veil is smaller, about 24 x 36 inch rectangle. This veil does not cover the throat, but is worn with a 1) barbette (chin strap) or with a 2) wimple, which is a separate piece of white linen that passes under the chin and the ends are pinned on top of the head. The fabric is tucked into the neckline of the gown and then the veil is pinned on top. 3) occasionally you see the rectangular veil worn over the hair with no barbette or wimple at all. |
| 13th & early 14th century, the fillet and barbe appears. This consists of a hat that sometimes seems to be a pillbox style (straight sides and flat top) and sometimes seems to be an straight-sided open top circle of stiffened linen, and sometimes seems to be a hat shaped like an American Navy sailor hat (fabric crown and outward flaring turned up brim (sometimes referred to as the “coffee filter” hat by lazy modern costumers) Sometimes the fillet seems to be a “coffee filter” shaped fluted, flaring circle with no crown. Sometimes it seems to be a sailor-hat brim without a crown, but with a sort of “pie crust” ruffle on top. |
 |
 |
| In the picture from the Maciejowski Bible (below) you can see the veil without a wimple, with a wimple and at far right you can see the fillet and barbe style that dominates the last half of the 13th & early 14th Century |
| All the varients of the fillet are worn with a barbe (or barbette) aka chinstrap or with a wimple. In the first quarter of the 14th century a veil is sometimes draped OVER the fillet. I could not find any instance of a fillet worn without a barbe or wimple. Maidens in the early 14th century wore the fillet and barbe (pie crust style) over long loose hair. All other ladies wore their hair braided in a big bun at the back of their necks with a caul over it. The cauls were often yellow or green. The fillet and barbe or wimple were ALWAYS white. |
 |
 |