To celebrate Kathy Warren’s love of dance and friendship.
Fascinators
A fascinator is a type of headdress (usually for women) which would not be considered a hat because it doesn’t cover enough of the head. Accordingly, its purpose is purely ornamental and it does not serve to shield its wearer from the elements. It is usually secured to the wearer’s hair with a comb or some sort of clip.
Fascinators are deemed fairly formal and are worn where hats would otherwise be appropriate, e.g., at high-class horseraces, in church, or as an alternative to a veil or hat for brides. Ornaments include pearls, beads, feathers, or flowers. (Incidentally, at the legendary
Royal Ascot
horse-racing event, fascinators have been officially deprecated in the royal enclosure since 2012; ladies are expected to wear proper hats.)
Notorious and/or famous is the ginormous specimen worn by the British princess Beatrice at the wedding of the Prince of Wales with Kate Middleton in 2011 (and later auctioned off for charity, raising £99,000). There are also fascinators whose basic structure and size approach the general concept of a hat, while still needing the comb or clip for fastening. These are called
hatinators
.
From “Anselm's Notes on Dances”, by Anselm Lingnau
(Used by permission.)