Fascinator Hats and Hatinators UK

Fascinators are occasional headpieces that are usually worn for weddings and races. In weddings in the UK guests wear fascinators as traditional wedding wear, the mother of the bride especially may be most daring with a statement piece, however that is not always the case. You may have seen that a lot of attention is focused on the guest fascinators on the Royal Wedding with extravagant fascinator or hatinator designs or sometimes subtle understated designs. Fascinators are also traditional worn at horse racing events, in the UK fascinators are compulsory headwear for ladies day for the Royal Ascot and Grand National racing events, in the US the biggest horse racing event is the Kentucky Derby usually taking place in early May.

A fascinator can be worn in various ways, most commonly on either left or right side of the head, or in the center depending on the fascinator design. You may want to choose the way the fascinator attaches according to your hair style which will now discuss.

Clip fascinators are suitable for light weight fascinators. They are very versatile as the fascinator can be worn at any angle and on any part of the head that has hair. For smaller fascinators you can also clip them only a larger fascinator to make bespoke styles. Clip fascinators are less suitable for short hair or very thin hair.

From the years of selling fascinators, headband a fascinator are the most popular. They are the most stable on the head and the headband can come in various sizes, thick headbands or thin alice headbands. The headband can be made to match the fascinator or your hair. Some fascinator like to hide the headband to match their hair colour, and some see it as part of the design and want it to stand out. Headband fascinators can also be used on any hair type. The negatives are that it may alter you hair style (you hair will be flattened on where the headband is on your head), and the angles that you can wear the fascinator is restricted.

Comb fascinators again are more suitable for ladies with longer and thicker hair, as it will need hair to grip. A comb fascinator can compliment your hair style by holding the hair back. 

Small Flower Fascinators. Understated subtle fascinators can be as simple as a rose or a small flower on the head. See our Classic Flower design as an example here

Hoop fascinators usually consist of strips of sinamay or horsehair braid netting looped around to for glorious designs. See our most popular mixed colour hoop fascinator design here.

Pillbox Fascinators

Pillbox fascinators are small hats attached with clips or headband. They can be made of wool, felt or sinamay. They are the option of choice if you would like something more traditional but smaller than a hat.

Disc Saucer Fascinators
Disc fascinators are sometimes referred to as hatinators. They do not side on the head like traditional hats, but are usually attached with clips or a headband. We have examples for medium sized disc fascinators and large sized disc fascinators.

Sinamay is a natural material used to make fascinators it is similar to woven straw. What makes sinamay so special is that is is easily shaped into different shapes. Some millinery may use hardeners to stiffen their designs once the fascinator has been made. Sinamay can be used to make the base of the fascinators or strips of sinamay to make bows to hoops to embellish the fascinator.

Horsehair braid netting is a polyester netting designed for making fascinators. It is not as easy to shape as sinamay, but because of its beautiful look, milliners find a way to shape them via heat, stitching or glueing.

Fascinators love to have feathers as embellishments. Coque feathers, rooster hackle, goose biot, peacock feathers and ostrich feathers are most commonly used.