Women of high social position wear cocked headdress completely hiding their hair pulled behind their heads.

These headdresses are covered with textile and sometimes with a hairnet.

The « balzo » was a very popular feminine headdress in Northern Italy. It consisted of a roll of hair, real or fake, rolled around the head in a band tied with ribbons.

In the same group of women, some only wear a simple white veil, falling on their shoulders.

When they are old, women entirely wrap their head, including the chin, in white cloth called touailles.


The touaille is a narrow yet very long piece of cloth which is part of the bride's trousseau and is useful in the whole house as dusters, napkins, hand towels, saddling clothes, bandages... They can also be used to wrap up food or precious objects.


Attached to the belt, it becomes an apron, like the one on this picture, worn by the servant witnessing Saint Peter's Abjuration, in La Brigue.

- Masculine headdress -

The implements -