Peek, flick, flutter... how to flirt like a true señorita in a heatwave

Whether fluttered by a Spanish noblewoman under a lace mantilla or waved today inside a crowded tube carriage, a handheld fan is a useful tool for the flirtatious: a peek, a flick of the wrist ... and the eyes have disappeared again.

- Vanessa Thorpe

Fabric fans are now back in large numbers in Britain and commanding some chilling prices. Designer versions, costing as much as £400, are pushing back the tide of expensive electronic gadgetry, functioning as handy indicators of both good taste and a healthy bank balance.

A pretty pink Pucci fan, left, will set you back £150, while Aspinall's cotton and birchwood Edwardian design comes with a tan leather case for a mere £125.

"There's a boom, certainly. I see people going about with them all the time now," said Hélène Alexander, who founded the Fan Museum in Greenwich in 1991.