There’s been a rise in the popularity of headscarves this season. SS26 runways of New York Fashion Week saw this accessory across multiple brands — from Anna Sui featuring multiple headscarves in quirky, playful floral, and striped patterns of different textures and all with ruffled hems to Calvin Klein taking a minimalistic and elegant approach by featuring the scarves in mainly plain neutral colours like black, white, and brown with a sleeker silhouette. Even celebs like Sabrina Carpenter, Kendall Jenner, and Alia Bhatt have been spotted donning the elegant head piece.
Personally though, I’m not the biggest fan of headscarves. Obviously, there’s a whole history behind it and it’s very reminiscent of retro fashion of the 1950s and of fashion icons like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Jackie Kennedy; and I have a lot of respect for that. I even wear them sometimes on bad hair days. However, I just don’t agree with the claims of it being a versatile piece that you can wear with anything.
Maybe it’s because I’ve associated all different types of these headscarves with a lot of random things — like, firstly all the aunties back home in the Northeast always wear them during the summer to protect their heads from the heat, so it’s lowkey very “aunty” for me; also, there were so many people in college tying bandanas around their heads to look cool and it always felt so performative to me and gave me the ick. They remind me of Tanya McQuoid from The White Lotus, who is such an unintentionally funny character that I start laughing right away. And also when people tie the scarves fully over their head and cover most of their forehead, it ends up looking like those surgeon hats. Plus, whenever I see a white he
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Here to stay
But I do completely agree that there are situations where wearing a headscarf is a must. Like if you’re ever in a vintage convertible Cadillac with your big sunnies cruising down the coastline as you blast Lana Del Ray songs and pretend like you’re an old Hollywood heroine; or if you’re ever on a cruise and your delicate headscarf gets accidentally whisked away by the wind only to end up being caught by the most handsome man ever and you both live happily ever after (unless the ship is the Titanic). Or more realistically, maybe for a cute picnic or concert or just on days when you want to switch things up and try a new hairstyle.
No matter what your opinion on this trend is, you can’t deny that scarves of all shapes, lengths, sizes, colours, patterns, and textures worn in multiple ways — on the head and waist, as tops, and, of course, around the neck — have been extremely popular this season and undoubtedly will be for the rest of the year.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)