Coif Sizing

I've been meaning for years to make a nice embroidered coif. But I've never felt comfortable with how mine fit. I've made several different sizes over the years, but there is new research (POF4, ExC) about how they should be worn and the proper foundation from hair taping (HT).

With all this in mind, I decided to take another crack at coif making.

Coif Research

At 5'10", I'm pretty sure I'm not the typical size for an Elizabethan lady. So, I decided to look at what was the average size, and use this as a basis for determining what size my coif should be. I'll spare you most of the math, but if you are so inclined, please check out the google sheet with all the details.

I surveyed 60+ coifs that I could find information for. I've documented them all in the google sheet referenced above and a Pinterest board. All dimensions I will use are in inches and the coif names were arbitrarily made up by me, but where possible, it reflects the source location and ascension number. These extant coifs are all ornate, so while I don't consider them a representative sample of coifs in the late 16th / early 17th century, I have assumed that their variation in size is typical of the larger population.

I considered the height to be the distance between the bottom (where the cheek curve ends) and the top (where the widow's peak is) and the width to be the larger dimension that wraps around the back of your head, leaving a seam on the top of your head (yes, I made my first coif wrong with the seam down the back of my head, so I consider this an important point to make).

The average height of these coifs is 8.9 inches and the average width is 16.7 inches. The width is almost twice the height. (At 17 x 24 inches, I considered CH6072/217 to be an outlier and did not include it in the average). Below is a scatter plot of the coif sizes.

So, now I know the average size for a coif, but what was the average sized woman who would be wearing a coif? While there is no definitive answer, I was able to find several articles about average historical heights:

• OSU Research
• UK Daily Mail
• Guillaume Research

Most of these speak to mens' height, but some mention that women were typically 2-3 inches shorter than the men. Additionally, I found a great study about average head circumference compared to height. This used a population of modern Britons. The average women's height in modern Briton from this study appears to be 5'4". While the studies of historical height don't quite agree on the average height from the 16th century, there seems to be some agreement that it was only slightly shorter than modern heights. So, for my purposes, I used 5'3" or 63" as the average women's late 16th / early 17th century height.

With these averages, I then calculated average coif size for a given height. This is not conclusive as I had to make a lot of assumptions, but it can be useful as a guideline. Also, remember that this is an average, so even for the same height as head size, there was some variation.

Height	63"	60"	62"	64"	66"	68"	70"	72"	74"
Coif Height	8.9	8.5	8.8	9.0	9.3	9.6	9.9	10.2	10.5
Coif Width	16.6	15.6	16.4	16.9	17.4	18.0	18.5	19.0	19.6
% increase from average		-4.8%	-1.6%	1.6%	4.8%	7.9%	11.1%	14.3%	17.5%

For me, these sizes are a reasonable starting point. Each person is different and the shape of your head and amount a hair you have will effect the size as well.

While going through this exercise and reading the details for all these coifs, several other points stood out to me:

• There is quite a bit of variation in decoration. Some are blackwork (of black, red or green), some are poly-chrome embroidery, and some are whitework, with variants / blends of each of these. Some designs are rigidly repeating small motifs or structured lattice patterns and many are free flowing vines, animals, flowers, bugs, etc.
• The majority of these highly ornate coifs are on unbleached / natural linen. I knew that bleached linen wasn't common in the 16th century, but I honestly thought that these beautiful works of art would be the exception and be stitched on bleached linen.
• The coifs that still have ties generally show that the ties were quite long (long enough to wrap around the head and back down). Some ties were embroidered or colored. They very from cord to tapes and ribbons.
• About 3-4 are unfinished.
• The thread count of the linen is as high as 120/90 (warp/weft) per inch. Only a few have thread count noted in the description, so it's hard to draw any conclusions, but modern linens (even embroidery linens) tend to have a thread count around 30 per inch.
• The coif shape / pattern varies. Some are extremely pointed, some are almost rectangular in shape with no point at all.

Now I just need to make a few samples, to make sure they fit, then start the embroidery.

References

• Arnold, Janet, Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Linen Shirts, Smocks, Nechwear and Accessories for Men and Women c1540-1660, Costume and Fashion Press, London, EN, 2008. (POF4)
• Mellin, Laura, Extreme Costuming: How to Wear an Elizabethan Coif (ExC)
• Farnsworth, Margo, Italian Renaissance Hair Taping - Examples (HT)