Aiguillette (ornament)

An aiguillette, also spelled aguillette, aiglet or aglet (from French "aiguille", needle), is a cord with metal tips or lace tags, or the decorative tip itself.

Functional or purely decorative fasteners of silk cord with metal tips popular in the 16th and early 17th centuries, sometimes of gold set with gemstones or enameled, are generally called "aiglets", "aglets" or "points".

In modern usage, an "aiguillette" is an ornamental braided cord with decorative metal tips worn on uniforms or as part of other costumes such as academic dress, where it will denote an honour. This usage of "aiguillette" derives from lacing used to fasten plate armor together. As such, a knot or loop arrangement was used which sometimes hung from the shoulder.

These aiguillettes should not be confused with lanyards, which are cords also worn from the shoulder (or around the neck), but do not have the pointed aiguillette tips and are usually of fibre rather than gold or silver wire, and often not braided.

The modern aglet or shoelace tip and the decorative tips on bolo ties are types of aiguillettes.

Portraits of the 16th and 17th centuries show that aiglets or metal tips could be functional or purely decorative, though many were used to "close" seams and slashes that are not always apparent on dark garments in portraits. They were made in matched sets, might be of silver, silver-gilt, or gold, and were worn in masses.

A 1547 inventory of Henry VIII of England's wardrobe includes one coat with 12 pairs of aiglets, and 11 gowns with a total of 367 pairs. The Day Book of the Wardrobe of Robes of Elizabeth I records items given and received into storage, including details of buttons and aiglets lost from the Queen's clothing. This entry suggests the huge numbers of matching aiglets fashionable forty years later:

Lost the 2 of February ... [1582] 1 bunsh of small gold tagges or aglettes from a gowne of black satten at Sittingbourne parcell [part] of uppon the same gowne 193 bunshes

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