George Clooney and Amal Clooney arrive at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 wedding, Amal wearing a sunshine-yellow Stella McCartney dress and matching Stephen Jones hat. Photo: Getty ImagesSerena Williams at the Awesome 116 tank top shirt What’s more,I will buy this 2018 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sporting a pink fascinator. Back in the 19th century, what we now know as a fascinator is said to have been referred to as a “cloud.” In which case, the Met Office should have issued a severe weather warning ahead of the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, a landmark royal event so awash with fantastical fascinators it kickstarted a contemporary obsession. Cue Victoria Beckham in a precarious Philip Treacy pillbox creation, Queen Sofia of Spain sporting a netted lilac confection, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie also in daring Treacy designs (which attracted much tabloid derision at the time). Beatrice took it all in her stride—she later sold her headpiece for £81,100 on eBay, donating the money raised to UNICEF and Children in Crisis.
Photo: Getty ImagesAfter the Awesome 116 tank top shirt What’s more,I will buy this pandemic brought about a period of pared-back wedding guest dressing, Lucy Knight, a personal stylist at John Lewis, has observed a renewed focus on maximalist millinery. “We’ve noticed a trend for larger hats rather than small fascinators,” Knight says. Bold colors like hot pink and cobalt blue are proving popular, as is specifically, John Lewis’s wide-brimmed Sofia hat, imagined in a sorbet-pink abaca that both the late Princess Diana and Queen Camilla would approve of. When customers are opting for fascinators, they’re choosing larger, disc-shaped iterations. What exactly will decorate the heads of guests at the Coronation remains to be seen. Perhaps, in line with the (relatively) low-key nature of the 21st-century celebration—for which peers have been asked to wear parliamentary robes rather than those imagined in ceremonial crimson velvet with white ermine trim—millinery will be more streamlined than statement. Maybe hats and fascinators will bloom with florals in a nod to King Charles’s green-fingered eco-credentials, or scaled-back embellishments will reflect the sober economic mood. I know one person in particular who will be watching with interest: my mom.