Head protector

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

When children were learning to walk they wore padded crowns to protect their tender heads from harm if they fell. The caps were made of rings of horsehair covered with leather or fabric and trimmed with colored ribbons. In England, these caps were called "puddings" because of their shape. According to A. Varron, a costume historian, the term "in pudding and pinner [pinafore]" was a metaphor expressing extreme youth.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art