Bigouden

[4] The distinctive customs and costumes of the area have attracted artists and ethnologists since the late eighteenth century, leading to some idiosyncratic theories such as the claim that the locals descended from pre-Celtic aboriginal inhabitants of Brittany or that "physiognomic similarities" to Mongolians indicate descent from an ancient Asian race.

Especially famous was the tall lace bonnet worn by the women, which covered only the top of the skull and extended to a triangle of fabric mounted on a base.

Mrs Bury Pallister, writing in 1869, described it as follows, the cap, or 'bigouden' is composed of two pieces: first, a kind of skull-cap, or sere-tête, fitting tight over the ears, then a little round bit, resembling, the young people said, a "pork pie" hat, made of starched linen, pinched into a three-cornered peak, the middle peak embroidered, and tied on by a piece of tape fastening under the chin.

[7] René Quillivic's statue La Bigoudène at Pors-Poulhan depicts a woman wearing the headdress.

It was designed by Bernard Le Brun at the request of the Association de Promotion du Pays bigouden.