Teyana Taylor attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 05, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/FilmMagic)
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In Ruth E. Carter
Marble bust of Marie d’Anjou, Queen of France, circa 1465
The wimple - the head veil with the chin covering - was traditional in the Middle Ages for married women. Just like women in Islam today, in certain periods married Christian women were required for religious and modesty reasons to cover their hair.
The cloth that covers the chin was called a barbette, and had the extra benefit of hiding a sagging neck!
I call it a barbette because it appears to be a strip of cloth unconnected to the cloth on the shoulders and chest. If it were all one piece of cloth, it would be a wimple.
There was also a version with the cloth under the chin but NOT over the head, and that was called a gorget:
As you can see, the amount of hair that needed to be covered changed across the middle ages, though in general, married women were pretty much always required to wear their hair up and neat. Loose hair was considered to indicate either a “maiden” (unmarried woman) or a “loose woman”.
oscar isaac, john boyega and daisy ridley attend the european premiere of star wars: the rise of skywalker on december 18th, 2019 in london, england.
Traditional hairstyles of the Fula people (or Fulani or Fulɓe)
1, 2: Guinea
4: 1959 Burkina Faso
6: c. 1920
7: Burkina Faso
8. Central Guinea
9. Dalaba, French Guinea (now Guinea)
10. Fouta Djallon, Central Guinea, ca 1955
Why are they called “penny loafers”?






