fascinator

plural fascinators

1. literalA fascinating person or thing.

   A more repellent personality would be hard to imagine, and yet Hedda Gabler is one of the eternal fascinators of the world stage.

   2009 January 18, Charles Isherwood, “Hedda Forever: An Antiheroine for the Ages”, in New York Times

2. fashionA delicate, often frivolous head decoration worn on the hair, primarily by women.First known use late 20th c.

   Westminster Abbey was peppered with everything from neat pillbox hats to netted fascinators.

   2023 May 6, Chloe Mac Donnell, “Coronation fashion sprang few surprises – but all eyes were on Penny Mordaunt”, in The Guardian

   2 more examples

   Why, for example, was Lady Gaga the first act? Surrounded by pink ostrich feathers and wearing a fascinator that looked like a feather quill atop her head, she put on her best French accent to sing Mon truc en plumes (originally by Zizi Jeanmaire) but it still looked like a scrappy, tacky, riverbank cabaret by an American pop star.

   2024 July 26, Arifa Akbar, “Paris Olympics opening ceremony review – soaring ambition deflated by patchy delivery”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   On a recent night when I visited, a group of girls had taken over an entire section, all of them wearing black fascinators as if attending a funeral. The hostess explained that it was a young woman named Mallory’s “RIP to my 20s” birthday dinner.

   2025 May 5, Brock Colyar, “It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl”, in New York, archived from the original on 19 May 2025

3. USdatedA type of wool or lace headscarf.