Sixty years ago today, King Baudouin of Belgium escorted Queen Juliana of the Netherlands into Luxembourg Cathedral to attend the wedding of Prince Jean of Luxembourg to Princess Josephine Charlotte of the Belgians (Baudouin’s elder sister) in this fantastical feather covered hat.
Photo from Kurt Hutton via Getty
Royal Hats 
You did a big post for Beatrix’ birthday about her hats and included some of her many feathered ones. Many were similar to this one.
Yes- good memory! That post featured a number of Beatrix’s feathered hats which are indeed, quite similar.
2 words: road kill
of what? A muppet?
LOL!!!!
Oh grow up. You don’t have to like the hat but there’s no call for that kind of remark.
Let’s get the conversation back to discussing hats, shall we?
I wish we could see the rest of this hat. Even though it would have been made of entirely of real fur or feathers sixty years ago, does it have to be now? Is there a stigma or ‘cheapness’ to wearing a hat (such as this) made from artificial fibres? After all, no one would think now of eating from aluminium plates, despite the expense and prestige 100+ years ago.
I think it’s more accepted to wear feathers beause the bird doesn’t have to die. With fur, the animal dies and that gets the animal rights groups up in arms. But there are many faux-fur hats these days. Although the royals still wear real fur sometimes in the winter time.
There is no reason why hats couldn’t be all made of synthetic fibres. Faux fur these days looks just as good (if not better) than the real thing.
I’m pretty sure this is made of a type of marabou feathers (I’m a hat maker)
I think so too. It looks very similar to the material used on Queen Beatrix’s evening gown cape today
http://www.ppe-agency.com/show.php?zoektype=2&search=10-04-2013%20Amsterdam
I like all the hats worn by the old queens expecially in the sixties. We need to be more traditional like we wear back then. But this hat I’m sorry to say is a little off kilter.
Good thing fashion changes. Nice dress, ugly hat.
I’m not sure I would rush to label this ugly… although the shape is a little confusing. If we could see the colour and material it is made of, that might help.
Are royal hats still covered in this much fur? It is not acceptable to use fur in the fashion indsutry any more.
That’s not entirely true. Fur is still used but now there are ethical options for harvesting. And many princesses and queens wear fur hats in the winter.
“ethical options for harvesting”? like a gun? I don no any other way to get the fur offa animal withou shootin it.
Here is information on ethically harvesting fur.