As expected, the royal guests attending this inauguration pulled out all the stops when it came to their hats!

The Duchess of Cornwall wore an ice blue leaf fascinator designed by Philip Treacy. She wore this previously to the weddings of Peter Philips and Autumn Kelly in 2007 as well as her son Tom in 2005 but it looks totally reinvented with her ice blue gown. In the past, I have not always been a fan of these halo fascinators but today, I thought Camilla looked absolutely beautiful.

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Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden wore a cream straw hat with a dramatic diagonal brim and large spray of flowers and feathers on the side designed by Philip Treacy. I think this hat would have benefited from a trim of some of those feathers (it was a little too messy on the side I thought) and I prefer Victoria in smaller hats but overall, she looked great.

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Crown Princess Mary of Denmark wore a delicate slate blue flowered, feathered, netted, fascinator. There was a lot going on in this headpiece but I loved it. I thought it was gorgeous with her handpainted silk kimono-inspired gown. The whole look was unexpected but beautiful.

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The Princess of Asturias, who does not wear hats very often, suddenly developed some hat bravery and appeared in this Maria Nieto designed asymmetrical signature hat in dove grey complete with a flower and feather explosion on top.  I’m going to give her points for her new-found hat bravery but something about the shape of this hat didn’t work for me. The crown ended up looking like a giant earmuff and that’s never a good thing. Leitizia’s column dress would have been better contrasted with a hat with a horizontal brim, don’t you think?

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Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein wore the loveliest shade of green silk from head to toe… but even in the loveliest shade, it was too much green Her hat looked like a folded green dinner napkin and fell flat for me.

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Princess Mathilde of Belgium wore a blush pink picture hat designed by Belgian designer Fabienne Delvigne. I loved this hat- it was quietly elegant and looked beautiful on Mathilde. The rest of her ensemble was a bit to pink for me (we have to break her of this head-to-toe one colour obsession) but didn’t attract from how much I love that hat.

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Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway wore a wreath of beaded flowers??? I know. I didn’t really get this either.

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I thought that the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg looked all right in this latte brown straw hat with rolled brim. While I liked the colour with her newly darkened caramel hair, I think the brim was to chunky for Princess Stephanie’s delicate features and the hat aged her WAY beyond her 29 years.

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Crown Princess Masako of Japan was all smiles this morning. Much has been speculated about Masako, whose attendance at this event ended a decade-long period of her missing out international royal events (officially, the Japanese court says she is being treated for adjustment disorder but unofficially, it’s widely understood she’s suffered chronic depression after giving up her international diplomacy career to marry the Crown Prince). Masako repeated the silk dress and matching pillbox hat she wore for Emporer Akihito’s birthday celebrations in 2010. The hat alone, I love on her. With the dress, it’s a lot of fabric. That being said, it was just so wonderful to see Masako back out in public. Crown Prince Naruhito, beamed non-stop from ear to ear, seemed thrilled to be attending this event together.

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 Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Misned  of Qatar wore a navy turban to coordinate with her couture outfit and serious bling. I don’t think there’s any point commenting about her hat since we’re all just staring at her necklace! And yes- it’s real. Mozah doesn’t do jewels that aren’t real.

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We seldom see such a gathering of representatives for so many royal houses- it’s quite spectacular.

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Photos from Getty as indicated and Dutch Photo Press