Wimple

The wimple is a garment of medieval Europe worn by women. It is a cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around the neck and chin. At many stages of medieval culture it was unseemly for a married woman to show her hair. A wimple might be elaborately starched, and creased and folded in prescribed ways, even supported on wire or wicker framing (cornette). Italian women abandoned their headcloths in the 15th century, or replaced them with transparent gauze, and showed their elaborate braids. Both elaborate laundry and elaborate braiding demonstrated status, in that such grooming was being performed by others. Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales has the Wife of Bath and also the Prioress depicted wearing them. Today the wimple is worn by some nuns who still don the traditional habit. http://www.centurionministry.org/body/head-covering.asp Woman, Prayer & Head Covering The King James Version explicitly lists "wimples" in Isaiah 3:22 as one of a list of female fineries, although the Hebrew term is rendered as shawl or cloak in other versions. 
==See also==
*Babushka 
*Christian headcovering
*Headpiece
*Hijab, a similar Islamic head covering worn by Muslim women.
*Veil
==References==
Category:Roman Catholic religious clothing
Category:Headgear
Category:Catholic religious life
Category:Medieval costume
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