Fontange

The Fontange is a high headdress popular during the turn of 1680’s – 1710’s. Technically, fontanges are the assembly: bonnet with ribbon bows which supported by a wire framework called a commode.

The term “fontange” is also used by some writers to refer to the associated hairstyle or the combination of headdress and hairstyle. The ‘fontange coiffure’ was a hairstyle where the front of the hair was worn curled and piled high above the forehead in front of the frelange, which was always higher than the hair. Sometimes the hairstyle was supported by a wire framework called a pallisade.