2004

The costume worn at Pont-L'Abbé, and along the bay of Audierne is very singular. The cap or "bigouden", is composed of two pieces : first, a kind of skull-cap, or serre-tête, fitting tight to the head over the ears, then a little round bit, resembling, the young people said, a "pork-pie" hat, made of starched linen, pinched into a three-cornered peak, the middled peak embroidered and tied on by a piece of tape fastening under the chin; the hair is turned up, "en chignon", over the skull-cap. The body of the dress has a large "pièce" of red or yellow, and sleeves to match. The men wear several very shorts coats, one over the other, the shortest trimmed with fringe; sometimes sentences are embroidered with coloured woollens round the edge.
BRITANNY AND HIS BYWAYS, Mrs Burry Palliser, 1869.