The Bigouden coiffe is the tallest headdress in Europe, and it got that way on purpose. After 1920 the starched lace rectangle gained roughly a centimetre a year, passing 30 cm and reaching 40 cm at Penmarc'h by the end of the war. Nobody decreed it. The women of Pont-l'Abbé simply kept building upward.

This system takes that decision literally. Everything runs top-to-bottom: narrow columns, stacked headlines, tight leading, height given where width would be easier. The ground is dead-matte black broadcloth. Against it sit bleached linen white, saffron and yellow floss, bottle green, scarlet — the palette of an embroidered gilet, never softened into pastel.