Aiguillette

An aiguillette (from French "aiguillette", small needle) is an ornamental braided cord most often worn on uniforms, but may also be observed on other costumes such as academic dress, where it will denote an honour. Originally, the word "aiguillette" referred to the lacing used to fasten plate armor together. As such, a knot or loop arrangement was used which sometimes hung from the shoulder.

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 (see Aiguillette (ornament)) and are usually of fibre rather than gold or silver wire, and often not braided.

Theories of introduction

A series of fanciful legends has developed about the origin of aiguillettes. One account relates that when certain European troops behaved reprehensibly on the field of battle, their commander decided to hang certain of them. The troops asked to be given a chance to redeem themselves and started wearing a rope and spike about their shoulders with the promise that if they ever behaved badly again, they were ready to be hanged on the spot. It is further related that these troops covered themselves with glory thereafter. Another tale recounts that aiguillettes originated with cord and pencil worn by generals and staff officers for writing dispatches. Still another account has it that the idea is French in origin and goes back to the use of horses in battle. A general's aide-de-camp carried a loop of cord to tie up the general's horse during dismount. As a practical approach, the aides would loop the cord around the epaulette flap on the shoulder of their tunic. All such accounts have no known basis in fact.

Aiguillette (ornament)

An aiguillette, aguillette or aiglet (from French aiguille "needle") is a decorative tag or tip for a cord or ribbon, usually of gold and sometimes set with gemstones or enameled. Small cords and ribbon bows tipped with pairs of aiguilettes were fashionable ornaments in the 16th and early 17th centuries.

In contemporary military and civil uniforms, an aiguillette is an ornamental braided cord with a similar metal tip, derived from armor fastenings. The plastic or metal aglet on a shoe lace is also a direct descendant.

Uses

Aiguillettes were made in sets, and might be of silver, silver-gilt, or gold.

Surviving portraits show that aiguillettes 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 and were worn in masses. The Day Book of the Wardrobe of Robes of Elizabeth I of England records items given and received into storage, including details of buttons and aiguillettes lost from the Queen's clothing: