Fascinated by Fascinators
Posted by Heather MacAllister in Heather MacAllister, tags: amusements, fascinators
Yes. Princess Beatrice is wearing a cloud of butterflies on her head. I’ll admit, when I saw this picture, I thought, “Oh, honey, no.” But then . . . but then it became a “hmmm.”
And here is Sarah Jessica Parker with her homage to Dr. Seuss. 
There’s actually a name for these whimsically bizarre bits of feathers, tulle and fabric: fascinators. And I find myself fascinated.
Look at these things: 
I want one. Easy enough. They’re for sale. Or I could make my own. But it’s not enough to want one. I want some place to wear it, some event where wearing a fascinator is not only appropriate, but encouraged. Realistically, I’m not headed to a royal wedding or Ascot any time soon. I’d freak out the people at Kroger and Ace Hardware. I bet the 99 Cent store folks would be cool, though. Still. I do not have the kind of life that requires a fascinator. But I want one anyway.
So am I alone? Well, maybe about the fascinators, but who else has something in her closet she just had to have but doesn’t have the life for? You know what I’m talking about. ‘Fess up.
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Alas, I am too practical to have anything in my closet that can’t be worn. But Heather, anyone who can wears the Tongues of Flame could pull off wearing a fascinator. I think the one with the peacock feathers would look fabu on you.
Those are incredibly cool. See I would own them, but display them like art. I don’t do hats.
I love clothes, shoes and purses. I covet them. There are these Christian Louboutin heals that I want so bad it hurts. And it would hurt, my pocketbook and my feet. They are four inches tall, and I’m a girl who only wears flats. Still, some day I may buy them just to look at them. 
I’ve already convinced my husband that my designer purses are wearable art. 
Thank God, he believes me.
I always envy people who can do the craziest things and pull them off. I, alas, am not one of them. In fact, my wardrobe is so many shades of khaki, brown and black you could fall asleep just looking at it.
Why don’t you suggest we have a “Fascinator” Ball at the Harlequin party one year and we could all wear them. We did a “Black and White” gala a few years back, so why not?
We could have a contest–Interpret your book cover into a fascinator and best hat wins.
I like the way you think. Or wear them at the RWA literacy signing now that posters aren’t allowed. Blaze fascinators. Hmm.
YES!!!!!!!
Brilliant!!!!!
Oooo, shoes. Candace, I think some are designed to look good walking from the limousine into the restaurant.
Rhonda and Lori, take a look at all the little girls’ Easter dresses that are for sale now. I had boys, but they have the cute little suits with the tiny little bow ties. You just get these Norman Rockwell images in your head with the little darlings looking so adorable. And you, you in your flowing garden-party dress that you will wear . . . will wear to all those garden parties.
Ah, yes. The Tongues of Flame. Here it is over at the Tori Carrington site: http://tiny.cc/hjf3R I’m with Tony and Lori and Kimberly Raye.
I am a loon for hats, partly because I have a giant head and can never find any that fit. (Seriously: I wear a man’s large hat.)
If Harlequin threw a fascinator party, I’d be all over it in an instant.
It could happen. They’ve done themes before.
Put me in the practical crowd. I tend to have only what I can use, which is pretty un-glam, and on top of that, I go through closets and the house once a year, and anything not used in 12 months is hauled off to Goodwill.
It’s fun to look at everyone else’s, though!
Sam
I would have to say no to the fascinators. I don’t think my chickens would like them. Plus, it just doesn’t work with farming attire. No, there is nothing in my closet that I bought but have no where to wear it. Have a great day.
Anyone else laughing over the image of Brenda in a fascinator hat? (Snort, snicker, snigger.)
But you know who could pull it off? Jacquie D’Allesandro. I can *so* see her in one of these.
Sam, I am the exact same way! If it doesn’t have an immediate purpose, it goes into the garbage or Goodwill. I abhor clutter. It makes me twitch.
Oh, now see, they have toy kayaks. Get one of those and a glue gun, a little blue fabric . . .
Oh man, I wouldn’t want to be the one to ask her to wear a fascinator hat LOL. The toy kayak… hmmm
But yes, Jacquie would look incredible in one of those!!
Those butterflies!
Is it just me or does she look a bit … unbalanced? I guess when the Queen is your grandmum, you can get away with anything.
Roberta, is that a challenge? A farming fascinator?? ‘Cause I was just over at http://www.chickenhat.com
And . . . and you’d have your own source of feathers!
Sam and Lori, are you practical in ALL areas? I don’t go around buying stuff I can’t use, but I find stuff I WISH I could use
LOL, Heather, I have a closet full of stuff I don’t have the life for. I tell people that I was actually born to be a can-can girl and somehow ended up a romance author instead. Anything with sequins, beads, glitter, ruffles, and especially FEATHERS, I’m all about. I have fantasies of finding a dresss with lots of feather elements, and if I do, you’ll certainly get to see it at a future RWA conference (okay, I did find one at BCBG but it didn’t fit quite right).
I so want one of these feathered head things! I really like Sarah Jessica’s. My boyfriend often accuses me of dressing like a Dr Seuss character. Yep, me and Sarah.
I do have a lot of fun maribou hairclip things. I have way more than I could ever find an excuse to wear, but I do put them on occasionally and go out on the town.
Oooh, I just followed your link to the fashion fascinators site, and I MUST have the pink Kendall one on the first page. That thing was born to live on my head.
Oh, yes. If you click on the peacock picture, you should get another link.
I love wearing bright flashy colors but…not on my head. I live in a small Alabama town and it’s not exactly a fashion metropolis.
Besides my 17 year old daughter would fall down in a dead faint from embarrassment. :-O
Sherry, think of the blackmail possibilities
I LOVE these…it’s the first time I’ve seen them. And the name fascinators seems exactly right, after all, look at our discussion.
If I wore a fascinator the top would touch most ceilings if I also wore the silly 5 inch heel shoes I have in my closet. I’m a purse/shoes collector and my dh has given up the fight.
Every time he asks if I *need* new shoes, I say, “What’s need got to do with shoes?” (or jewelry for that matter)
Otherwise though, I’m pretty good about donating unused items…especially his. :-[
Bonnie, LOL! FIVE inch? Can you stand upright? What do they look like??
Rhonda, you are the first author I have met who shares my clutter aversion.
Word. LOL
Heather, trying to search my inventory for something not practical, LOL — my interests are practical (sewing, gardening, cooking), so most of the stuff I buy is practical, in the sense that it will go to some use, even though it’s fun. I like bright colors, etc, too, and I have a few sparklies, but I can’t say there’s anything too crazy in my closet… Oh! Do socks count? I like to buy funny theme socks, and socks with stuff on them (flowers, alligators, turtles chili peppers…). But I do tend to wear them. I think that’s the best I can do, LOL.
Sam
Aha! Funny socks! I am relieved.
Make your own life. Come on, you’re a writer. Write yourself an event for your fascinator!
I had always been fascinated with the idea of a masqued Mardi Gras ball, and several years ago, my husband and I threw one. It wasn’t at a 5-star hotel, just in our house. We encouraged guests to re-wear something formal they already owned (a bridesmaid dress?) or a costume if they didn’t have or want to buy any fancy new dress (surprisingly, many of the guys owned a tux…). We gave prizes (beads) for the best mask (one of my husband’s college roommates was an art major and custom designed his…wow oh wow) and best costume (one of our friends shaved his beard and dressed in drag…I did not recognize him for nearly 15 minutes). For me, I made a royal purple tafetta gown with a full skirt and a corset-top (that laced up the back exposing an inch of skin from neckline to waist). I love to sew, and I bought hte materials for under $20.
Almost 5 years after our ball, I got to wear my gown again, to a “real” black tie Mardi Gras ball in downtown St. Louis.
One of the other posters lamented the lack of garden parties for their kiddo’s suits and Easter dresses. Throw one! Think of the photo ops for little ones on an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard in their finery (and you know they won’t fit that dress this time next year, so whats a few grass stains?). “Fancy” doesn’t have to be expensive, and you might be surprised by how many of your friends secretly wish the same thing!
Good point (Y)
Strangely enough, it’s purses for me. I have a pleathora of colors and styles, yet I carry the boring black bag every day. Bright colors are in? I’ll take one in red, green, turquoise and orange. Tiny bags are in? Give me one of each! I’ve got my eye on one with red roses all over it. I’ve got to have it! But when will I use it?
I’m not much into hats. Well, I like looking at them, but wearing them, not so much. I have a bunch of Ren Faire stuff I don’t wear anymore, though. Does that count?
Hi Tori, yeah, that counts. I still have my swine auction outfit, but I haven’t been to the rodeo in several years.
I have a pair of black marabou mules that my husband brought to the hospital right after I gave birth to our twins. As if.
LOL!
Oooooh these are fun!!! I wouldn’t wear one *g* but they are so fun to look at. I’m just not a hat kind of gal. Now shoes. Oh baby. I covet the shoes Candace mentioned and I haven’t even seen them. High shoes, low shoes, fancy shoes, tennis shoes. As long as they decorate the feet, I’m entertained.
Of course, I go barefoot more often than not, so its an odd entertainment. :-P
I’ll take any excuse for dress-up. In my day-to-day, I wear men’s t-shirts and pj pants. But when I go out, I like to dress for it! I’m somewhat shameless about wearing things that are too dressy to… say… the movies. Although, out of respect for viewers nearby, I guess I couldn’t do a fascinator for that. But I have a gold lace dress I’ve worn everywhere– I just wear it with a jean jacket or leather if it’s not a dress-up occasion. But I enjoy clothes the way some people enjoy art or TV or decorating their home. It’s interesting to me and I like seeing what other people do with it as much as I like playing with it myself.
Although… now that I think about it, I bought a long, curly wig once that I couldn’t quite pull off. I loved that thing though. It was so fun. Maybe it just needed the right fascinator to set it off.
Joanne, if you can’t pull off wearing something, there’s no hope for any of us.
Kimberly, one of my fellow Playfriends, has a facinator. She’s married to a Scotsman and went to Ireland for a family wedding. She special ordered it from the UK. It wasn’t quite as crazy as some of those pictured, but it was different. I believe it was sort of a white cap (sort of yamaka-esque) worn to the side with black wire feather type things – tame as facinators go. As crazy as it seemed, she got quite a few compliments from people there.
I’d like to get the chance to go so something where a facinator would be appropriate.
How fun! I do like the back and white ones and the wire feather thingies.
I have this dramatic black coat I bought in a funny little shop down a quaint little cobbled laneway in Paris. It’s super long and lined with silver silk and has this upstanding collar and split cuffs that reveal the lining when you swan about. The moment I saw it, I had to have it. It was going to be my signature Paris piece, the coat I would wear and people would comment on and I would be able to say, oh-so-casually, “Oh, this old thing? I bought it in Paris.” One problem – I don’t go to the opera that much. Or the ballet. And this is definitely an opera or ballet kind of coat. Not a picking-up-groceries-after-work kind of coat. And so it rests, carefully cosseted in a dust bag, in my closet, seeing the light of day only once or twice a year. But you know what? I’m still glad I bought it. It gives me pleasure to just take it out and look at it every now and then. So I say, go buy that fascinator. What the hell.
Sarah, I don’t know what I love more -the sound of your coat or the description of where you got it!! (Y)
I bought a pair of shoes from the shop next door, too. Needless to say, they are impossible to walk in but, like the coat, I take them out every now and then and admire them. I figure it’s like art, right?
Now THAT’s what I’m talking about! Great story. And I’m all for wearable art.
Those hats are pretty neat but I would never wear one. I did buy a pair a black shoes that I’ve yet to wear. I have no where to wear them to. I never go out so they just sit there and look pretty.
I think we should take Kristi’s advice and make our own events!
I can barely match the most basic clothes–I’m fashion inept. They should really sell Geranimals in my size. So, Fascinators are definitely not something I would ever try to pull off….lolol…but they are cool to look at!
And yes, Jacquie D could definitely get away with it!
Leslie, I have a picture of you wearing a gorgeous black and white dress. I refuse to believe you’re fashion inept. So . . . literacy signing fascinators. What say?
Those are SO cool, Heather. And I believe you could pull it off beautifully. I like nice clothes — nice as in dressy. Uh…I work at home. We eat out at Bobby’s Cheeseburgers. My day-to-day shopping is usually Wally World, Publix, and the drive-thru at the bank. However, every couple of months I go out to dinner with two girlfriends and we all dress up for that. My husband always says, “Why’re you wearing that?” LOL — Hel-lo.
Gorgeous hats. Love them. My daughter would have the cachet to wear them, although I don’t think I could pull them off. I have recently started buying and wearing vintage hats. The first couple I purchased because they reminded me of my grandmother, but by the fourth one, I started wearing them rather than leaving them in a hat box. Now if I’m wearing something other than blue jeans, I wear one of the hats… and I’m keeping an eye out for something that will work with my jeans, besides a cowboy hat.
Fascinators are worn in Australia during the Melbourne Cup racing carnival. It’s actually a big deal here – people get into the spirit of the occasion with some really amazing fascinators and hats. It’s the race that stops the nation, and the fashion is a huge part of it.
Monique, I was all over the Royal Ascot site where “substantial” fascinators are encouraged. I may go a-googling for Melbourne Cup pix.
Betty, if you’re wearing vintage hats, you can wear fascinators. And I’ll just bet there’s a denim fascinator out there.
Jen, just when I want to get dressed up, other people want to relax and dress down!
I wore a fascinator to my BIL’s wedding in Ireland. Alas, I haven’t been able to wear it since, so it lives in my closet…
So cool, sigh. You’ll just have to get invited to more family weddings
I have a hat that was a gift about 10 years ago when I was still in high school. I wore it once or twice for hat day, but haven’t since. Along with that, I have a few really fancy dresses that I wore to dances in college and I just can’t part with them – though I don’t have anywhere to wear them to. *sigh*
Karin, one word: cruise (H)