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14. Padded roli, early to later 15th century

The roli was a decorative addition to a head-dress.

It was pinned on top of a net, caul or templers, or was part of a made-up horned head-dress. It was not worn alone.

a.    A heavily decorated roli, from the early 15th century, which emphasises the width of the head-dress.

b.    A long roli sewn to the outside edges of a large horned head-dress (P111).

To make the roli cut a strip of silk, 15-30 cm wide by the required length (at least 60 cm, and up to 2 m). Make it longer than you think you need - it can easily be shortened! Decorate with embroidery, bands of braid, beads or sequins. If the decoration is heavy you will need to sew up the roli from the right side, otherwise stitch the long edges together on the wrong side, tum it right way out and stuff it with polyester wadding or cotton wool before joining the ends. It needs to be firm enough to hołd its shape, but flexible enough to fit round curves.

For use on a horned head-dress, allow enough length for all the curves. Attach the roli to the horns along the seam lines by oversewing.

15. Hennins and wired veil, second half of 15th century

a.    The hennin - a courtly fashion

b.    The ‘flowerpot’ style (truncated henin) - morę widely worn, sometimes with a veil draped over it.

Both a & b were worn over a velvet fillet, usually with a loop (Fig 12), with the hair in a single bun on the crown of the head. The hennin was usually worn with a transparent veil: this was rectangular, wider than the height of the hennin and 2 m or morę in length. It was draped across the cone, extending beyond the top and falling down on either side {Gowns, Fig 22). Occasionally the veil was raised on wires (d).

The 'flowerpot' style, and sometimes the hennin^ was combined with a frontlet, a doubled band of black velvet draped over the base of the cone to frame the face. The frontlet is 5-15 cm wide and 80-100 cm long.

continued overleaf

b

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