Cool Hat, Cat

One little word for getting noticed on Melrose Avenue: tiaras.

I’m standing in the window of L.A. Eyeworks, trying on these princess-for-a-day head confections when a woman in cropped pants and political hair passes by. She stares. I do look a little like Cindy Lou Who, what with the tiara’s singularly sequined ball-and -bauble antenna balancing on the top of my head. I feel pretty, in a Dr. Seuss sort of way.

The tiaras’ own story reads like a more conventional fairy tale. Last fall, an L.A. Eyeworks optician named Javier Brambilla decided to make a few Christmas ornaments for friends. The tiny creations were so well received that he invented a few like-minded tiaras--bursting with velvet-covered Styrofoam balls, flashy sequins and glass beads--for the staff to wear at a trade show. Displayed in the store, the pretty headgear was spied by one Elton John, who scooped them up en masse, reportedly for New Year’s party gifts.

“I’m completely surprised by all this,” says Brambilla, who, in between his day job of helping people navigate through the store’s frame selection, is continuing to crank out tiaras. (See another version on Page 22.) “There’s this thing about tiaras--you’re talking and you forget that you have something on your head.” *

Brambilla’s tiara: $130.

Getting stared at on Melrose: priceless.