fontange

Why this word is great

FONTANGE — [Noun] A towering headdress of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, constructed from cascading layers of starched lace and ribbon, worn as a symbol of aristocratic excess. From French fontange, named after Marie Angélique de Scorraille de Roussilles, duchess of Fontanges (†1681), a mistress of Louis XIV who popularized the style. Unlike the humble "coif" (a plain cap for practicality) or the shapeless "hood" (a garment of warmth, not ornament), the fontange was an architectural folly for the head—a declaration of wealth so precarious it required wire supports. Imagine the rustle of stiffened lace against a powdered décolletage, the absurd height blocking doorframes, the way its intricate pleats caught candlelight in Versailles’ mirrored halls—a monument to vanity as fleeting as the era that birthed it.