Queen Beatrix is one of the most prolific hat wearers in the royal world today. With the announcement this week of her upcoming abdication and the celebration of her 75th birthday today, I thought we should look back at the many hats she has worn during her public life. There are so many to share (more than 300 at my last count) that I’m breaking this retrospective into three posts. Today, we’ll look at all the hats worn while she was princess, as well as the first decade of her tenure as Queen. The second and third post will look at the hats worn during the final 23 years of her reign.
We start at the very beginning.
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Before becoming queen, Princess Beatrix’s hats reflected the fashion of the times. During the 1960 and early 1970s, there were lots of pillboxes and as the 1970s passed, the hats and brims grew bigger.
During the first year of her reign, there was a flurry of engagements (as to be expected for a new Queen) and with them, numerous new hats, many with statement flowers:
As the decade progressed, Beatrix’s hats grew a larger and more colourful (as did everything else during the 1980s and 1990s!)
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When most of us think about Queen Beatrix’s hats, I suspect the image that comes to mind is of one of the large, brimless tiered “Hat Cakes” she has often worn during the last decade (stay tuned tomorrow for a review of these beauties!). Looking back at her earlier hats was very interesting for me because there seems to be a progression toward this “Hat Cake” shape through the 1990s- you will notice that the hats get bigger and the pillboxes, in particular, start perching on the top of her head.
Which ones are your favourites?
Photos from Getty as indicated and Corbis
Royal Hats 
She looks really pretty in #43. I think she looks better in smaller hats like this one, although she was pretty smokin’ stylish in the 1970s! Thanks for this post. I hadn’t seen most of these photos before. It must have taken you a really long time to find them. THanks!
Beatrix did look great in the 70s, didn’t she?!