The cocktail hat or fascinator is a style of millinery worn at cocktail parties and festive gatherings, especially in the evening. The name is related to cocktail drinks, often consumed while wearing them, and the hats sometimes include a feather or feathers, giving them the appearance of including a cock's tail quite literally. This may be a fun affectation related to the play on words.[citation needed]
Meredyth Etherington-Smith wrote in London's Independent that cocktail hats are her favorite style of hat. She describes them as being "absurdly frivolous" and something "you cram on at the end of a hard day in the office and sally forth to a cocktail party looking as if you have spent the afternoon getting ready rather than staring at a computer screen."[1] Smith calls a surrealist black velvet hat in the shape of a high-heeled shoe with a 3-foot feather (a museum piece designed by Elsa Schiaparelli for Madame Salvador Dali in the 1930s) the best one she's owned. "It caused major upheavals whenever I wore it" but came to "a bad end when a drunk in a cocktail bar in New York sneaked up behind me and cut off the feather" causing despair for weeks she wrote.[1]
A white cocktail hat made by North Vancouver's Doreen Marlor and constructed with paper from a local craft store was part of the Fibre, Naturally: Paper Like You Have Never Seen it Before on Granville Island at Emily Carr University.[2] Nancy Matt, a milliner from Saratoga Springs, recommends brimless cocktail hats for people dressing up in the evening.[3]
See also
References
- ^ a b Meredyth Etherington-Smith Mad for hats; Big hats, little hats, silly hats June 14, 1997 The Independent
- ^ Kerry Blackadar Hanji marries old and new August 07, 2009 North Shore News
- ^ Meg Hagerty Designer puts hats on track in Saratoga Springs August 03, 2009 Post Star
External links
- Cocktail hats from the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
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