Folk costumes

**Atlantic Islander** · 08-04-2012, 11:14 PM

My absolute favorite:

The strange capote-e-capelo. A large cape that covered a woman’s figure, allowing only a glimpse of her face, for centuries the capote-e-capelo was a typically Azorean woman’s garment. Varying from island to island in the cut of the cape and the arrangement of the cowl, which in Faial had the extravagant shape of a wedge resting on the shoulders and which jutted out in front for over a palm, the common characteristic of the capote-e-capelo was that it was made of a strong, heavy electric-blue cloth that lasted for generations and was handed down from mothers to daughters. The women of the Azores stopped wearing the capote-e-capelo about 1930-40.