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A wimple is an ancient form of female headdress, formed of a large piece of cloth worn around the neck and chin, and covering the top of the head. Its use developed in early medieval Europe. At many stages of medieval Christian culture it was unseemly for a married woman to show her hair. A wimple might be elaborately starched, and creased and folded in prescribed ways, and later elaborated versions were supported on wire or wicker framing, such as the cornette.
Italian women abandoned their head cloths in the 15th century, or replaced them with transparent gauze, and showed their elaborate braids. Both elaborate elaborate braiding and elaborately laundered clothes demonstrated status, in that such grooming was being performed by others. Today the wimple is worn by certain nuns who retain a traditional habit.
In literature
The Wife of Bath and the Prioress are depicted wearing wimples in the Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400).
The King James Version of the Bible explicitly lists wimples in Isaiah 3:22 as one of a list of female fineries, however the Hebrew word "miṭpaḥoth" (מִטְפָּחוֹת) means kerchief.
In Stephen King's Dark Tower related novella "The Little Sisters of Eluria", the sisters of Eluria are depicted as wearing wimples.