Capote (garment)

The River Road by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1855 (Three habitants wearing capotes on a sled)

A capote or capot is a long coat with a hood.

From the early days of the North American fur trade, wool blankets were made into capotes by both natives and French Canadian voyageurs which were perfectly suited to Canada's cold winters.^[2]

They were used as winter outerwear by the habitants and voyageurs of New France and were commonly worn by the Métis of the Red River Colony. The Hudson’s Bay Company also sold capotes made out of Hudson's Bay point blankets.^[3]

Habitant capote

In the early 1600s French sailors traded their capotes to the Micmac in North America and by 1619 the French habitants were also wearing capotes. Fifty years later the habitants wore an altered form of the capote based on the then fashionable justacorps. The altered knee length version however had no buttons and was worn with a sash (Ceinture fléchée).^[3][4]

Métis capote

The Surveyor: Portrait of Captain John Henry Lefroy ca. 1845 by Paul Kane. Lefroy is wearing a Métis/voyageur outfit consisting of a capote, a sash, a fire bag, mittens on a string, leggings, garters and moccasins.^[1]

"The Metis man’s winter attire was the capote; a thigh length coat with full length sleeves which could come with or without a hood or cape. Most had small shoulder decorations made of red stroud. To keep the coat closed there were both thongs and buttons or a sash." Lawrence J. Barkwell^[1]

The Métis capote of the Red River area were made of leather or wool.^[1] Those made of leather were often decorated with beads and silk embroidery in floral designs.^[5] The wool capotes were of different colors; blue was preferred by the Catholic Métis and white by the Protestant Métis while grey was worn by both.^[1] A sash was worn around the waist and a fire bag was either tucked in the folds of the sash or hung around the neck by a shoulder strap. A fire bag was used for carrying flints, steel, tobacco, pipe, knife and other personal items^[6] as most capotes had no pockets.

William H. Keating described a group of Métis buffalo hunters he encountered at Pembina by the Red River in 1823.

"All of them have a blue capote with a hood, which they use only in bad weather; the capote is secured round their waist by a military sash; they wear a shirt of calico or painted muslin, moccassins and leather leggings fastened round the leg by garters ornamented with beads,&c. The Bois brulés often dispense with a hat; when they have one, it is generally variegated in the Indian manner, with feathers, gilt lace, and other tawdry ornaments." (William Keating 1824)^[7]

External links

• Compagnies franches de la Marine winter dress between 1690 and 1700
• Metis textiles
• Metis capote (without a hood)

References