I agree that the lace mantilla is lovely. It’s easy to carry in the purse or pocket. Most women to do not wear hats to Mass, not even on Easter Sunday. When I was at Mass on Easter, was the only one there with a hat on. I felt so out of place and was terribly embarrassed. Remember very vividly when I was a kid at Mass seeing the priests prowling the aisles looking for the slightest infrations in the female “dress code”. If they had no hats, gloves or wore patent leather shoes, out they went!
Maybe it's because I'm over 50 now, but I sure don't care what anybody else thinks about what I'm wearing. If I'm happy with it, I'm happy with it.
I always have something in my hair in church -- I avoid the big hats or mantillas because I'm in the choir and it looks like "out of uniform", but even if it's just a bow, a scrap of lace, or a couple of hairsticks, it's something.
When I was a kid, the ladies in the Episcopal choir had the cutest little three-cornered hats that were part of the choir vestments. They also had Elizabethan ruffs (so did the guys)!
But I wear either lightweight pants or a very lightweight dress to church, because during Mass I'm vested and the choir robes are HEAVY wool. Plus it's very hot in the choir loft, seems like all the heat finds its way up to us. Any nice dress that I wore would be wringing wet and ruined.
I’m pretty sure I was a Catholic that was accidentally born into a Lutheran family, LOL!