Take a Bow

You, my dear devoted reader, may recall my post about the delights of fascinators and simply headwear in general. I am now very happy to inform you that I appear to have pre-empted a new fashion trend. Note the very exciting hair decorations being worn by the models in Luella's Spring 2009 show, for example.


I mention Luella first because, and I do intend to boast here, just weeks before she unveiled the veils, so to speak, I invested in a UFO hairpiece and veiling. I like to think that this means that I am so cool that I am ahead of fashion, it is far more likely, however, that by pure chance my ecclectic taste has coincided with what is considered on trend. Either way I am very excited about wearing my new UFO out and about in Edinburgh.

This brings me to my question of the moment: is it possible to wear crazy headwear without looking like a prat? I ask this in all seriousness because here in Edinburgh a lot of folk do tend to be rather conservative about their atire (I use conservative with a small c but as many of the men do sport outfits somewhat similar to that of David Cameron I believe that a Conservative dress sense would be an equally apt description) When all around you are wearing bland, drab and "normal" clothing, putting something on your head and proclaiming it fashion would, on the whole, be considered mad, be it a watermelon or an oversized bow that you are balancing on your bonce.

Now, I am never one to be ashamed of my fashion, but neither do I appreciate the looks of "what on earth is that girl wearing?" so I have been trying to create low key outifts which can be given that extra punch by way of one of my headbands or scarves or the UFO. This sort of outfit is along the same sort of lines as wearing a prom dress for everyday atire - another feat which I am hoping to pull off this semester without looking totally OTT. I love fashion, but I have no wish to look like a fashion victim.


Perhaps one day I will go all out and dress Harajuku-esque...I do have a hair bow bought from that very Tokyo district...

Alice in Wonderband

Today I found out that I was cooler than I originally thought. Walking home from town I was thinking about what to post about next and somehow my thoughts turned to headwear. Not hats, I don't suit hats. I mean headbands and headdresses and all that malarky - Bat For Lashes style shall we say. So, I get home and sit down to read The Guardian and there it is in The Measure - headgear is cool. Specifically Bat For Lashes. Now, there is no way that I can prove that I was thinking about crazy headbands before I read they were cool, I'm just going to have to hope that you believe I really do have the fashion know-how.

So, crazy headbands. At the moment my hair is a very annoying length; that point when you're letting your hair grow out and you realise that, at that current moment in time, your hair looks like a crazy hairdresser attacked you with shears generally used to make sheep bald. All in all, bad hair times. Bearing this in mind, I've decided that what I need is to jazz up my locks is, well, something to stop people looking too closely at my hair. And, to do this, there has to be something else on my head to look at. This is where crazy headwear comes in.

I'm thinking coloured hairbands, hippy style. Feathers might be a little bit too
much, but depending on the occasion I could go for that. I mean, Feathers and Sequins is where it's at afterall. A very simple and understated outfit can be made snazzy and super super cool with just the addition of the right headband. Nice and easy, don't you agree? Plus, you can always make your own so that you can be sure not to see someone else wearing the same one (whenever I spot people in the same top/skirt/hat/whatever as me they always look better than I do, it is extremely depressing).

Alice in Wonderland had the right idea, that little headband really made her look so much cooler. I'm not sure whether the headband was Lewis Carroll's idea or whether it was a Disney idea, but either way they had pure style.

I also have a rather large love of those hats that aren't really hats. My Mum is currently trying to think of the word for them, she's offered "fancies" but that doesn't sound quite right. What I mean is those hats you have to pin on your head, the ones with lace coming off them. From the 1940s I think - good era. Possibly the 1930s. Gosh, I'm very bad at this describing malarky today. If by some amazing chance you are on the same wavelength as me and understand what I mean then well done, and I really hope you agree that they are quite
wonderful hats. Or rather, non-hats.

Now, I do think that for the good of mankind (and to save the fashion police some work) I should make it very clear that I don't think you should all go out and buy hairbands that would be better suited to a soap wedding, all big plastic flowers and stuff like that. No, no, no. Neither do I think that bandanas should come back in fashion. I am simply of the opinion that perhaps your head is there to put pretty things on, not just to hold your brain.