MY PROM MAKEOVER: It's Simply Fascinating - add one of these to the LBD

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Kate Middleton, wearing a jaunty fascinator
Getty Images

Hats off to Kate Middleton. The new Duchess of Cambridge has sparked a trend in hat accessories called fascinators, say industry observers and entrepreneurs who specialize in the niche.

Fascinators are decorative trappings made of fanciful materials such as feathers, flowers, lace or beads. They're typically attached to hats or worn in one's hair in lieu of a hat, along with formal attire. Some American hat retailers say the accouterments have been selling strong ever since photos of Ms. Middleton wearing them began to surface a few months ago. Customers are mostly brides and fans of the Kentucky Derby, the annual race that's populated by attendees donning frivolous, oversized hats.

HRH Princess Beatrice Duchess of York

Fascinators leave us with our long held notions about headwear challenged and expanded. Having always viewed the hat essentially as a functional article of clothing. Don't hats exist to keep one warm, dry, or shaded from the sun? That's why they should be in our houses, or so I believed. Women's fascinators and headbands, however, often have more in common with sculpture than with clothing. I now understand that the human head can simply act as a pedestal and hat materials (felt, straw, fabric) can be employed no differently than wood or stone or clay with three-dimensional art as the objective. Fascinators need not function as hats. The good milliner - when succeeding at the highest level, like the good sculptor, understands and skillfully manipulates this medium's materials. The results can be interesting, entertaining, and fun to wear.