I have some of those net hats upstairs, in the original package, but I forgot what they called them then. I will wake up a sleeping husband if I go up there now and rummage around, so I will look in the morning. I don't think the package calls them fascinators, although I wouldn't be surprised if people referred to them as that--in much the same way my mother-in-law still calls her refrigerator an 'icebox' as 'fascinator' is a very old term.
I have here a ca. late 1880s fascinator and it is a crocheted narrow, long, scarf-type head covering that essentially went over the head and covered just about only the ears. I have a photo of that somewhere here, too, and will look for that.
In the newspaper database I found an 1853 reference to the fascinator: "The article you examined...--elaborately trimmed with fringe all around--bears a multiplicity of names. "Rigolette," we conclude, is a name given in honor of one of Dickens' characters, who is represented as being a charming girl--a likeness of whom you can see at Parsons & Co.'s store. "Fascinator" is another favorite name given them by some and "Nubia" still another--a French name signifying, I believe, some sort of covering for the head.
They are all a light, warm, and convenient head gear, for the evening.
We admire the name "Fascinator." It is classical and appropriate, and is precisely the name given by the "ladies of color" in the "sunny south," to the article they wear on their heads, to keep their shining tresses from turning "yaller" when they go out to prune tobacco or break hemp. "Nubia" is another delightful name."
An 1892 article stated that: "A white wool fascinator was to be thrown over the head--and, by the way, these pretty fascinators are to be very much worn this winter, to the exclusion of the hood. The style of dressing the hair will not permit of any heavy thing over it, and as it is a tedious affair to get the little empire puffs, feathers, bows, and fancy combs into their proper places it would not do to have the work of art crushed under a hood. The fascinators are made much as before, only they are narrower, as they need but to cover the ears. The style of coat and wrap collars keeps the back of the neck warm."
An 1897 article noted:"For such use (i.e., outside wear) all sorts of caps of the yachting order are offered, and also some soft scarf hoods and clinging silken and woven small shawls, recalling the "fascinator" of our mothers' time. Light wool scarfs, fringed along one edge, are wound about the head and face and are very becoming."
An 1889 ad noted: "If you want a fascinator to keep the frost away, we have them of all descriptions and colors..."
A 1922 fashion article commented:"Anybody who was alive and old enough to take notice of the sartorial doings of womankind during the prudish eighties and modest nineties, will recall without effort the "fascinators" with which lovely woman was wont to swathe her head in winter, her shoulders in milder weather. Fashioned of yarns both soft and otherwise--'ice wool,' an especially prickly variety was esteemed ultra-smart--these little shawls, capes, and scarfs were as essential a part of a maiden's equipment as today her many sweaters are. Times have changed, and so have women. Today the veriest neophyte at Fashion's shrine knows too much to bundle up her head and spoil her silhouette. Hoods and head wrappings may be cosy, but they are scarcely picturesque. And the modern girl knows it is far more important to be always graceful, always picturesque, than even to be beautiful."
And, finally, another iteration of the fascinator appeared in this 1942 ad...
