Headbands in Style: Pearls, Bows, Velvet and Leather Bands

Headband style has a longer memory than most trends. In Britain the plain hoop is still called an Alice band, after the ribbon John Tenniel drew holding back Alice's hair in Through the Looking-Glass in 1871, and the shape has drifted in and out of fashion ever since. The current wave has a date on it. In September 2018 Miuccia Prada sent every model in her Spring 2019 show out in a padded band so tall it read as a halo, and by the end of the next year Elle was openly asking why the padded headband would not die. That is about the surest sign fashion gives that something has stuck.

 

It stuck because a headband does a job. It hides second-day hair, frames a face with nothing on it, and makes a T-shirt and jeans look like a decision. Four seconds, no mirror required.

 

The first group is the padded and sculpted kind, the shape that started all this. Jennifer Behr, who launched her line in 2005 and still makes it by hand in New York, is the reason it exists at this level: her pieces turned up on Gossip Girl from 2007 and helped invent the luxury headband as a category. Her Tori comes in black and brown silk and in velvet, and the Lydia and Lucy are slimmer if a full puff feels like a lot. Hai's Viola does the same shape in leather. Lele Sadoughi's Juliet is a gold pleated twist, Lelet NY's Bleeker is wide tortoise, and Alexandre de Paris makes the thin acetate one you will forget you are wearing, with a second thin headband from the same house added here. Lele Sadoughi's Velvet Gigi is a soft padded option, her Raffia Bessette brings a summer texture, and Jennifer Behr's plain black Kate is the one to buy first.

 

The test: slide two fingers between the band and the skin behind your ear. If they will not fit, it will be a headache by lunch.

 

What I would skip: the tallest padded styles with a high ponytail. Together they read as costume rather than polish.

A jeweled headband is jewelry, just placed where everyone looks first. That is the useful way to think about this group, because it changes what you wear with it. Treat the band as your earrings and necklace in one, and the rest of the outfit can be a grey sweater.

 

Emm Kuo does the most romantic versions here. The crystal-embellished satin bands come in three colourways, the beaded lace one looks like it was lifted off a vintage veil, and the pearl-embellished satin is the quietest of the lot. Jennifer Behr's Tressa is the big crystal moment, the one I would save for a wedding, and her Voilette comes with a short net veil for anyone who has been waiting for a reason. Alexandre de Paris makes two faux pearl bands in a wave shape, cream and black, plus a cutout acetate style finished with pearls that sits flatter than it looks.

 

From Revolve, Ettika's rhinestone band is one of the thinnest pieces in the edit and the easiest to wear on a weekday. Eugenia Kim's Lux and Elizabeth are beaded and a little more structured, while Lelet NY's Daisy is a fine gold wire scattered with flowers and the Ella mesh crystal band is wide, sheer and quite dramatic.

 

A pairing tip that holds for all of them: keep earrings to small studs or nothing at all. Two pieces of sparkle near the face start competing.

 

What I would skip: a crystal band with a sequinned top. One shiny thing at the face is plenty, and the band should win.

Soft headbands have a better origin story than hard ones. Lele Sadoughi launched her label in 2012 as a jewelry line, after years designing jewelry at J.Crew and Tory Burch, and started making knotted headbands because her two kids were born seventeen months apart and she had no time to do her hair. She told JCK the pandemic brought an explosion in demand, because a headband was the one accessory that worked on a video call. That is still the best argument for this group.

 

Her pieces are the backbone here. The Bardot is knotted brown velvet, the Jackie handkerchief headbands come in chambray, a vintage check and a silky leopard, and the Holly does a pink seersucker knot that looks like late June. Lele Sadoughi also does knotted versions in a bandana print, corduroy and raffia, which suit a change of season. Rowen Rose makes wide polka-dot bands in brown and grey that feel very 1960s. For a single bow, Miu Miu's slim velvet band and Valentino's bow-detailed velvet are the polished options, and Jennifer Behr's Norma is a silk headwrap with a soft knot. If you would rather wear a scarf than a band, self-portrait's white crochet bandana, Lelet NY's sheer lace bandana and Mariandree Gaitan's burnt orange Alana head scarf all tie the same way.

 

Then the turbans. Missoni has been knitting zigzags since Ottavio and Rosita Missoni opened their workshop in Gallarate in 1953, and the four turbans here are that pattern in yellow, in black with red and blue, in black with green and pink, and in a multicolour knit. They cover more hair than anything else on this page, which makes them the answer to a bad hair day.

 

How to tie the handkerchief styles: knot them at the nape under your hair, not on top of it, so the triangle sits flat.

 

What I would skip: a printed turban with a printed top. Let the zigzag be the only pattern.

The winter headband is the hat for people who hate hat hair. A wide knit band keeps the tops of your ears warm, leaves the crown alone and comes off in the office without a static disaster. This group is the one I reach for between October and March.

 

Valentino's lace-trimmed cashmere band is the prettiest, a soft knit edged in lace, and Miu Miu's cashmere-wool style carries a diamond jacquard with the logo on the front. Toteme does a monogram band and a compact knit in black, both very Scandinavian and very plain in the best sense. Moncler's are proper ski-lodge wool, one in a white knit with a red flower pattern and one in tweed. Goldbergh, the skiwear label, makes the Pascalle with a knitted logo stripe, the Warmth in navy and the Froid in white faux fur.

 

For a bigger statement, Apparis's Eleni headbands come in faux fox and faux sable and do the 1960s apres-ski thing without any guilt. And Missoni turns up again with a knit twist band in pink chevron, a cheerful option for grey days.

 

The check before you buy: look at the width. A band narrower than about three fingers will slide up off your ears and do nothing for the cold.

 

What I would skip: a faux fur headband with a faux fur collar. Pick one.

The last group is the bands I would wear on an ordinary Tuesday: Jennifer Behr's zebra ponyhair Cruz, Lele Sadoughi's leopard and neoprene knots, and 437's micro headband for anyone who wants barely there.

 

The trick with any headband is to let it be the only accessory doing anything. Hair pulled back smooth, a plain top, small earrings or none, and the band takes care of the rest. If you only buy one, buy the shape you would wear on an ordinary Tuesday, since that is the one you will actually reach for. Start there, and the bows and crystals can come later.