For a lot of women, hair accessories are a thing of the past - something that your mother clipped in your hair before going to Muffy’s eighth birthday party or what was perched on your head on the family Christmas card portrait back in 1989. In the past couple of years, hair accessories have come into their own for us “grown-ups” who like a bit of extra adornment. I dare not mention the word “scrunchie” for fear of being ostracized as old and uncool but headbands, alice bands, barrettes and other hair accessories have been embraced by those of us on the wrong side of puberty who want to voluntarily wear a patent black bow in our hair.
Although I’m not an advocate of preaching about fashion faux pas and age appropriate attire, it’s probably a given that if you want to be taken seriously, it’s best NOT to wear a headband with a massive red plaid bow that projects out of the centre of your head. And please do not wear bows and visible feathers to a job interview. Just because fictional character Blair Waldorf traipses around New York wearing tartan headbands and ruffled headpieces doesn’t mean you can attend a meeting wearing Hello Kitty clips.
That being said, there are a wealth of adorable hair accessories for those of us who want to go forth and go all out Marie Antoinette on that hair-do. Eugenia Kim, Philip Treacy, Missoni, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Philip Lim all want to sell you bejewelled bobby pins, so finding them shouldn’t be a problem. . Honest. Here are a few that I would be willing to wear in outside the confines of my home.
Trained at Central Saint Martin’s and based in New York, this accessories designer has a talent for playing with beading and crystals - most likely honed from working at Alexander McQueen and Fendi. A bit pricey for a headband but oh so pretty.
A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Eugenia Kim has been designing headwear accessories since 1997. Best known for her amazingly plush and chic winter hats, it’s nice to add her to the list of accessories designers I regularly stalk online (in a totally platonic way).
This evokes the image of the autumn bird perched on a branch or possibly using your head as a subsitute.
Owls are less girly than a pack of bows. I must keep telling myself this.
I like to think that hair accessories for grownups are the new hat. Instead of a 1940s black wool cloche hat I will be sporting an increasingly complicated collection of headpieces as my headband count has reached well into the double digits.
Production still of Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl © CWTV