The ‘A’ form of the aigrette refers to his wife, Anne of Denmark, whom he married in 1589. The pale grey (or blue) doublet is decorated with applied lengths of cord made from plaiting three, thick gold coloured wires together. The cords have been sewn down to the ground material in a trellis work pattern using five strands of cords for each 'band'. Inside the parallelograms of the trellis work there are strands of deep pink (probably floss silk) that are wrapped around (or possibly couched down) by what appears to be a flat, gold thread (also known as plate).
See also: passementerie
Scottish National Portrait Gallery online catalogue (retrieved 6 June 2016).
GVE