Wind Bonnets: A Wardrobe Essential You Didn’t Know You Needed

We like to poke fun at a lot of unnecessary clothing inventions we come across, but wind bonnets gave us pause in the middle of our initial snark. Keeping your hair intact through wind, rain, snow, tornadoes, or other unfortunate weather events is always difficult, and an initial poll here at the office reveals that many of our grandmas have been up on this trend for years. New York City hat designer Emily Hagen of MLE Hagen has created a new collection called Voile du Vent (meaning "veil the wind"), which takes this idea to a new level by using chiffon, pressed glitter, wire netting, vintage clasps, and leather to create the most couture wind bonnets the world has probably ever seen. While this is a step up from the plastic versions that grannies rock, the very words "chiffon" and "wire netting" do not inspire confidence that these headpieces will protect hair from "wind and weather" as promised, let alone that they will "compliment any outfit in the vein of Kate Middleton". As far as looks go, let's just say we've certainly seen worse, but we're still not absolutely sold. Click through our slide show to see the designs and let us know—should these blow away or become the next big thing?