text: Edward's son, King Richard II of England, led a court that, like many in Europe late in the century, was extremely refined and fashion-conscious.  He himself is credited with having invented the handkerchief; "little pieces [of cloth] for the lord King to wipe and clean his nose," appear in the Household Rolls (accounts), which is the first documentation of their use.  He distributed jeweled livery badges with his personal emblem of the white hart (deer) to his friends, like the one he himself wears in the Wilton Diptych (above).  In the miniature (left) of Chaucer reading to his court both men and women wear very high collars and quantities of jewelry.  The King (standing to the left of Chaucer; his face has been defaced) wears a patterned gold-coloured costume with matching hat.  Most of the men wear chaperon hats, and the women have their hair elaborately dressed.  Male courtiers enjoyed wearing fancy-dress for festivities; the disastrous Bal des Ardents in 1393 in Paris is the most famous example. Men, as well as women, wore decorated and jewelled clothes; for the entry of the Queen of France into Paris in 1389, the Duke of Burgundy wore a velvet doublet embroidered with forty sheep and forty swans, each with a pearl bell around its neck.
  A new garment, the houppelande, appeared around 1380 and was to remain fashionable well into the next century.  It was essentially a robe with fullness falling from the shoulders, very full trailing sleeves, and the high collar favored at the English court.  The extravagance of the sleeves was criticized by moralists.
  Headgear and accessories
  During this century, the chaperon made a transformation from being a utilitarian hood with a small cape to becoming a complicated and fashionable hat worn by the wealthy in town settings.  This came when they began to be worn with the opening for the face placed instead on the top of the head.
  Belts were worn below waist at all times, and very low on the hips with the tightly fitted fashions of the latter half of the century.  Belt pouches or purses were used, and long daggers, usually hanging diagonally to the front.