Costume accuracy question for the Great LJ Oracle(tm)

[lovetriangle]

This came up on the Ren Faire History Snobs tribe (a wonderful place to be a history snob, BTW).

My friend John, who is quite the history buff, has made an observation that:

"based purely on looking at period portraits. My contention is that the ENGLISH GENTRY and NOBILITY wore exclusively black hats from the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign until at least the mid 1590s. I say this only because I have never seen a portrait of an Englishman in any other color hat. Yes the Germans and Italians and French and Turks wore other colors, but not the English that I can see. It looks like in the early years they were velvet, then later were made of beaver. I would gladly be proven wrong by someone who can provide a definite period source."

He clarifies:
"I don’t claim to have any special insight, but I do own Icon and Dynasties have spent more than one day walking through the long gallery at Montecute (where the NPG displays their Elizabethan portraits) and was struck by the universally of the black hats. Most women don’t wear hats in portraits, but those that do (Lady Kytson comes to mind) also wear black. Of course, tournament costume is different (hence George Clifford’s white chapeau) and the rank and file military seem to wear a kind of tomato read flat cap. Charles Howard (who I assume was mostly bald) wears a white nightcap in several of his pictures, but has a black tall hat either on his head or on the table next to him. In the procession portrait of 1601 none of the men wear hats in the presence of the queen, but all have definite hat hair."

I am absolutely fascinated by this premise and would love to know if the Great LJ Oracle(tm) can prove him wrong!

As one of my favorite examples, here is Queen Mary and Lord Darnley in a lovely black hat with a salmon pink suit (droooooooooooool). 

 
And a lovely red chapeau, but of course, it's French (on Margarite of Valois)


And a red French Hood on an English woman, but out of the specified period (Mary Fitzalan, c1555)

Well, what say you, Great Oracle! Seen anything that qualifies?

Comments

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

I believe he is specifically talking about "ENGLISH Gentry and Nobility from the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign until at least the mid 1590s"

I've seen several French and Italian men in colored hats, and I've seen several french hoods with the little band of color, right below the upper bilaments.

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

That's not quite what I asked... Is he lumping French Hoods into the same category as "hat"? The reason I ask is because the the English wore their French Hoods with either white, black or red crecents (pink was a possibility, as well, but I've seen most of them on French heads, not English). The veil is almost always black. Actually it is always black in every portrait I've looked at but I really shy away from making categorical statements like that out of fear of being proved wrong as soon as I say it.

But like I said, a French Hood isn't a standard hat in my world. It's more of an overglorified hood.

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

Tricky. I knew what you were asking and that's what I was going for with the comment on the "band of color", but in my mind I don't think it would qualify as a "colored hat" unless the main area were colored and not just the crescent.

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok. I was misunderstanding, then. ;)

Yeah, I don't really count FH's as hats, but that's not to say others don't...