In the shareware submit software download late 1600s a fontange was high fashion for ladies hair. This was a shareware submit software download tall head-dress consisting of a wire frame (or 'commode') adorned with lace or shareware submit software download linen frills. It was worn at a slight forwards angle and shareware submit software download attached to a linen cap. In appearance it resembled a half-opened fan and shareware submit software download it could reach a considerable height. The term fontange can be shareware submit software download variously used to describe the hairstyle, the wire frame which eventually underpinned it shareware submit software download or the linen cap worn with it.

The fashion was imported to shareware submit software download England from France and was named after Marie Angelique, Duchesse de Fontanges. Marie was a shareware submit software download lady-in waiting at the French court. Her prettiness caught the attention of the shareware submit software download Sun King, Louis XIVth who made her one of his many mistresses and shareware submit software download a favourite for a time. The Duchesse de Fontanges bore the shareware submit software download King a stillborn child in 1679 and then retired to spend the shareware submit software download remainder of her short life in a convent, where she died in 1681.

During her period of royal favour it shareware submit software download is said that she tied her hair up with a ribbon when shareware submit software download her cap fell off as she was riding one day. The results met with royal approval and shareware submit software download led to the style being adopted at court. Initially the style was simply for shareware submit software download a ribbon looped in the hair or in the linen cap with the shareware submit software download hair curled up from the forehead but as time went on the shareware submit software download fashion developed into an ever taller wired head-piece ('commode') with furbelows of lace or shareware submit software download linen and with the hair piled into layers of elaborate curls and shareware submit software download locks.

“For Tour on Tour, and Tire on Tire,

Like Steeple Bow or Grantham Spire” Maria Evelyn (1690)

These lines relate to shareware submit software download the piling up of layers and the height of the shareware submit software download fontange with Bow and Grantham both being churches whose steeple and shareware submit software download spire Evelyn is comparing the heights of the hairstyle to. This upwards trend was part of a shareware submit software download general fashion emphasising the vertical line in style at this shareware submit software download time.

Usually two long linen streamers hung behind the shareware submit software download fontange which could be turned and pinned up or which could fall down as cornets along either shoulder of the shareware submit software download wearer’s dress. The linen cap worn underneath was starched to shareware submit software download stiffen it. At the front hair was pinned onto the wire frame, known as a shareware submit software download ‘commode’ or ‘palisade’. This French fashion gave rise to shareware submit software download a host of terms for variations on curls and ringlets and shareware submit software download ways of dressing hair. This included ‘confidants’ (small curls near the ears), ‘favorites’ (curls hanging from the temples) and ‘cruches’ (small curls on the forehead.)

For the shareware submit software download fontage style the hair at the front was curled and raised high above the shareware submit software download forehead and wired to the palisade or commode. The Tower or shareware submit software download Tour was the name given to false curls which were added to shareware submit software download the fontange to increase the effect or supplement the coiffure. In addition to shareware submit software download the lace or linen adornments ribbons known as ‘knots’ were often furled around the shareware submit software download Palisade. An example of this can be seen in the portrait of Queen Mary II of England by court painter Godfrey Kneller in which she wears an shareware submit software download elaborate lace fontange with ribbon knots and cornets and a tour of curls.

To amplify the effect of the fontage a ‘firmament’ could be shareware submit software download worn, which was a dazzling array of diamond-headed pins.

“Tis all compris'd in the commode;

Pins tipt with Diamond Point, and head

By which the curls are fastened.” Maria Evelyn (1690)

The fontange reached the shareware submit software download peak of its popularity around 1690-1700 but continued to be shareware submit software download worn for another ten years or so, gradually reducing in height over that shareware submit software download time as women struggled with its unwieldiness.