The idea behind this post started when I watched the Lord of the Rings yesterday. It was the last movie, Return of the King, during the really boring part (the end) where the last half an hour is just everyone crying. I noticed that Liv Tyler (who plays Arwen Evenstar, the elf who is in love with Viggo Mortenson, aka Aragorn) had a really cool headpiece on.

Here is the photo.

I know it would be pretty hard to NOT look like an elf princess if you wore this, but it got me thinking about interesting headpieces. Then I saw Trend Central’s blog today featured hand jewelry, and reminded my of the headpiece from yesterday.

Some of the hand jewelry featured on Trend Central’s Blog.

So I’ve been thinking about headpieces, and interesting jewelry (like the shoulder pads my friend Dean does, or shoe accessories) and of course I also started to think about how things things can go very wrong.

Two things I despise that involve hair and heads are up-dos and fascinators. OK, yes, a great hairdresser can do an interesting up-do, but its very hard to pull off, as you always look like you are going to your prom. I also have a very strong disliking of fascinators, and don’t think they are acceptable to wear unless you are the mother of the bride, over 50, or both.

Everything is wrong in these three photos: the hair is tacky, the hair accessories are dated, they all look like a wedding or prom look gone wrong. Image source.

Way too many of the fashion shows, student and professional, I have seen here in Vancouver had models with up-dos and fascinators, which I think is just crazy. Find me one major catwalk designer that had his models in prom up-dos with feathers stuck to their head. None, because its ugly!

But Liv Tyler’s Lord of the Rings headpiece got me thinking about what sort of thing you could wear on your head that is decorative, and not tacky.

I found this one on Net A Porter, by Eugenia Kim. Its cute.

I know this is Nicole Richie, which is bad news as far as I am concerned, but I think this head piece can work. Image source.

This is one of the brands mentioned on the Trend Central blog post today, its called Litter SF. The images are wonky, but the accessories are sort of cute. Although I am not convinced I would wear them unless I was at an outdoor wedding that involved camping or something.

This brand, Bliss Lau, also mention on Trend Central, has beautiful body jewelry.

And all of this reminded me of this brand called Ilya Fleet, which was sold on Coco de Mer’s website. Coco de Mer is the first real high end erotic store, which opened in London many years ago. They were one of the first stores to sell dildos and erotic literature in a very classy environment, starting the whole “high end sex shop” trend (this was around the time Sex and the City made the Rampant Rabbit dildo a household name, and Dita Von Teese was famous for tastefully taking her clothes off.) Anyway, Ilya Fleet sells a lot of bondage gear, but I love it, and think their pieces would be beautiful over a nude chiffon evening gown, or a thin, worn t-shirt. If you can get over the model’s perfect tits (and I mean perfect, these are the best tits I have ever seen in my life) imagine one of the bondage pieces over a fabulous black dress like the Bliss Lau pictures above…amazing!

All Ilya Fleet images from the Coco de Mer website.