Headband Aid! Lasses Lasso their Luscious Locks

For years, “that girl with the headband” could mean only one person in New York—25-year-old socialite Arden Wohl, whose identity has become intertwined with her fondness for elaborate headdresses.

But as of late, this accessory has moved onto the preciously disheveled heads of alterna-celebrities like British socialite import Peaches Geldolf and Nylon magazine darling Cory Kennedy; there’s even a Marc Jacobs shopgirl starting her own line of headbands, and it’s morphed into a cross between the flapper band and a pirate’s head scarf tied not underneath the hair, but right on top like a hippie crown.

At New York Fashion Week, 19-year-old Ms. Geldolf sat on many a front row—often next to Ms. Kennedy, 18—with various bands tied over her blond locks. (Ms. Geldolf has recently relocated to Williamsburg with her new husband, 23-year-old Harvard grad Max Drummey, guitarist of the band Chester French.)

“I wear headbands because I love the way hippie girls wore them in the ’60s,” Ms. Geldolf told the Transom from London Fashion Week. “I’ve been wearing them since I was 13 and saw an old photo of a hippie girl in Haight-Ashbury wearing one made of daisies.”

According to Ms. Geldolf, there is a right and a wrong way to don the headband.

“Never wear sports headbands or you look like an ’80s tennis player,” Ms. Geldolf instructed. “To get a unique headband, go to fabric shops and make your own. The one I wore at New York Fashion Week was a vintage band from the ’20s.”

Ms. Wohl might soon have to take notes from her British counterpart, about which Ms. Geldof is sanguine: “I’ve never met Arden Wohl, but I’m sure she and I will have some serious chats about the joys of headbands when the time comes!”

Meanwhile, 24-year-old Ginny Branch, who works at the Marc Jacobs Collection Accessories store in the West Village, is starting a headband line called A Year and a Day.

“I think our moms used to put bows in our hair and we just haven’t been able to shake it since,” said Ms. Branch, whose silver hair, fanciful headdresses and Southern accent have made her recognizable downtown. “I think I wear it partly as a distraction—I don’t blow-dry my hair, so a headband makes me feel a little sweeter, like I actually did something to look nice.” 

ialeksander@observer.com