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Alappet is a decorative flap, fold or hanging part of aheaddress or garment. Worn in a pair, or as a singular long strip giving a symmetrical drape, lappets were a popular form of women's headwear until the early twentieth century, and are still a feature of religious garments. Examples of lappets are to be found on thepapal tiara and on thenemes headdress of the kings ofancient Egypt. The same term is also used for similar-looking anatomical features on some animals.
Lappets were attached to some types of women's headdresses, notably the medievalhennin. They were also calledcornet, althoughcornet sometimes referred to the hennin itself.[1]
Towards the end of the 17th century, a cap called thefontange, worn in the home, was popularised. Made of linen and given height by an internal wire frame called acommode, the fontange featured much decoration, formed of linen and lace, including the key feature being lappets.[2] The fontange, with its lappets, was popularised in the French Court around the 1690s.[3]
Into the 18th and 19th centuries, the fashion for lappets worn in the west as a women's fashionable decorative accessory (for indoor wear) expanded.[2] Through this period, lappets were bright white or black in colour, and made of either simple or highly decorative hand or machine-madelace, or plain lightweight fabrics, includingsilk.[2] During the 18th and 19th centuries, as in the centuries before, lappets would be worn draped to the back of the hair or sides of the face.[2] While some formed part of a headdress, other lappets could be pinned to the top of the hair in a pleated fashion, or simply draped as described above.[4] The lace popularly used to make lappets had international origins, being created in countries including France, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Britain, Italy, and America, for example.[5]
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Themitres worn bybishops andabbots of Western liturgical denominations, such as theCatholic Church and theChurch of England, have lappets attached to them. Mitre lappets are often lined with red silk.
The lappets are probably a vestige of the ancient Greek headband called amitra (μίτρα), from which the mitre itself descends. Themitra was a band of cloth tied around the head, the ends of the remaining fabric of which would fall down the back of the neck.
The Latin name for the lappets isinfulae, which were originally headbands worn by dignitaries, priests, and others among the ancient Romans.[6] They were generally white.
In theArmenian Apostolic Church, the lappets are not attached directly to the mitre but are attached to the back of thecope.
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Since earlymediæval times each Papal tiara has included two lappets. Their origins remain a mystery, though they are obviously an imitation of the lappets of an episcopal mitre. It has been speculated that lappets first were added to Papal tiaras as a form of sweatband, with inner cloth being used to prevent the wearer from sweating too heavily during Papal ceremonies in hotRoman summers.
The two lappets (Latin:caudæ, literally "tails") at the back of the tiara are first seen in pictures and sculpture of the thirteenth century, but were undoubtedly customary before this. They were black, as is evident from monuments and inventories, and this color was retained into the fifteenth century.
Lappets on the tiara came to be highly decorated with intricate stitching in gold thread. Often a pope who commissioned a tiara, received one as a gift, or had one remodeled for his use had hiscoat of arms stitched on the lappets. Many later lappets were made ofembroidered silk and hadlace.
The last Papal tiara worn for a Papal coronation and created forPope Saint Paul VI in 1963 also had lappets.
The word is also sometimes used to refer towattles, flap-like structures that occur on the faces of some animals. For instance, thelappet-faced vulture has lappets of bare flesh on the sides of its head.
cornet, an old form of lady's headdress, with side lappets; a lappet of this
