Cape and Fascinator

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Gay Gilbert.

Hi, Gay. Where are you calling us from?

Tucson, Arizona.

Well, I just wanted to get your help about a phrase that my grandmother used to use.

When we would go to visit her in San Antonio, Texas, she would say, “Take off your cape and fascinator and have a seat.”

I always thought that the fascinator was a fan. And lately I’ve, with Google’s help, have learned that it’s a hat.

Anyway, I was just interested if you knew more about where that phrase came from.

So you arrive at somebody’s home, at her home, and she welcomes you in the door and says, “Take off your cape and fascinate her.” Is that it?

Yes.

Okay. And she’s motioning you over to a chair or something like that?

Right.

-huh.

Yeah, it’s a funny little phrase. I don’t know that the phrase itself has any history, but there was a time when women did wear capes and fascinators.

But the fascinator that we’re thinking of isn’t the hat fascinator, not the kind that you would see in church on an Easter Sunday where there’s this wild confection of feathers and lace that kind of just really draws the eye to the head and kind of shows off some wonderful millinery, you know, just this really cool thing.

But the older meaning of fascinator was a scarf of a kind, usually triangular shape and made of lace that would just, you’d fasten over your head to keep it warm or hold your hair in place.

And so typically before, say, the 1920s, if you read or heard someone talk about a cape and a fascinator, they meant take off your cape and then take off that scarf, that particular kind of scarf.

Yeah, so there was the older meaning of it that’s kind of been lost to time here.

And the reason it was called a fascinator typically has to do with this older meaning of to fascinate, which was to basically to put a little mystery or modesty in the appearance of a person.

And so it’s this idea of to fascinate, like they say that certain types of snakes fascinate people by hypnotizing them with their eyes.

It’s that kind of fascination, you know, that kind of like just drawing the eye in a weird and wild way.

So I guess both kinds of fascinators will do that.

Yeah. If your garment is that fascinating, you’ve done something amazing, I think.

Gay, thank you so much for spending some time with us. We really appreciate it.

Well, thank you. I really enjoyed it. And you gave me some new things to think about.

All right. Take care of yourself now.

You too. Bye now.

Bye, Gay.