fichu

It originated in the United Kingdom in the 18th century and remained popular there and in France through the 19th with many variations,{{Cite book|last=Lewandowski|first=Elizabeth J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gbIsJ2tZJS4C&pg=PA107|title=The Complete Costume Dictionary|date=2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7785-6|page=107}} as well as in the United States.{{Cite book|last1=Volo|first1=Dorothy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPLYqix19DIC&pg=PA289|title=Daily Life in Civil War America, 2nd Edition|last2=Volo|first2=James M.|date=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-36604-8|page=289|edition = 2nd}} The fichu was generally of linen fabric and was folded diagonally into a triangle and tied, pinned, or tucked into the bodice in front.

A fichu is sometimes used with a brooch to conceal the closure of a décolleté neckline. The fichu can thus be fastened in the front, or crossed over the chest. The cross-over fichu sometimes extended all the way to the back. Some models include a large over-the-shoulders back piece.{{Cite web|title=fichu |date= 2018| series= Fashion History Timeline|url=https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/fichu/|access-date=2020-08-21|website=fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu}}

The fichu found in several traditional cultures resembles a poncho that covers only the shoulders and chest.

File:Gullager Salisbury.jpg|Elizabeth Sewall Salisbury wears an embroidered fichu pinned at the neck, 1789.

File:Anonymous - Jeune femme au fichu blanc - J741 - Musée Cognacq-Jay.jpg|Jeune femme au fichu blanc, between 1790 and 1800

File:Fichu MET 1979.165.7.jpg|American or European, cotton, mid-19th century.

File:Fichu MET 1978.314.7.jpg|Probably American, cotton, mid-19th century.

File:Fichu MET 38.271 CP2.jpg|French, silk, mid-19th century.

File:Fichu MET 34.5869 CP2.jpg|British, linen, knotted, mid-19th century.

File:Fichu MET C.I.69.33.20 S.jpg|American or European, silk, mid-19th century.

File:Le fichu en indienne comtadin.jpg|Fichu en indienne, traditionally worn in the Comtat Venaissin.

• 1700–1750 in fashion
• 1750–1795 in fashion
• Cravat
• Kerchief
• Neckerchief
• Pañuelo

{{Reflist}}

• Baumgarten, Linda: What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America, Yale University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-300-09580-5}}.
• Cunnington, C. Willett, and Phillis Emily Cunnington: Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century. London: Faber, 1972.
• Payne, Blanche: History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century, Harper & Row, 1965. {{ISBN|9780060450700}}. {{LCCN|65010419}}. {{OCLC|223437}}.
• Ribeiro, Aileen: Dress in Eighteenth Century Europe 1715–1789, Yale University Prison, 2002, {{ISBN|0-300-09151-6}}.

{{Commons category|Fichu}}

{{Wiktionary}}

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=I8uxpd6ajqkC&pg=PA34& Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazar, 1867-1898]
• [http://larsdatter.com/18c/fichu.html 18th century women's kerchiefs and fichus]
• [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.838 Description from Diderot's Encyclopedie]

Category:Neckwear

Category:Shawls and wraps

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