Last Thursday, June 20, the Duchess of Gloucester attended The East End Community Coronation Gala and opened the Francis Lee Community Centre at Clare House, Old Ford, London.
For these engagements, she wore a soft pink straw hat with rolled brim. The classic shape of this hat looks great on the Duchess… but not with a lime green and turquoise blue flowered dress (the addition of a lime green scarf around the crown of this hat does not really help). I can’t for the life of me understand how Brigitte thought pairing this hat with this dress was a good idea, especially since she has both a lime green hat and a blue hat that would have matched so much, much better.
Photos from Johnathan Adam Davies and Johnathan Adam Davies via Tips Images
Royal Hats 
The pink in her flowers ties the hat to her outfit, even more than the hatband. But really, otherwise they’re just completely unrelated. It’s a shame, since the Duchess is such a lovely woman! I do like the shape of the hat, just not the color.
Like Hatqueen said, this hat looks very nice on her but just not with this dress. I hope she wears it again but with a dress that has some pink flowers in it.
The dress pattern is awful but all in all I don’t mind the pink hat with it. The green hat is wonderful!
I’m sorry to have to say this but The Duchess of Gloucester is starting to appear looking rather dowdy. This outfit is a good example. It makes her look very old and frumpy. When she wears a tailored dress and one of those smaller straw hats she looks much better. It is shocking but at some events, Princess Michael of Kent looks more elegant than she does. I never would have guessed that would happen.
I’m with you – nice hat, but definitely not with that frock. I would have chosen the green one as well, as it is very pretty, but Birgitte looks very young in that photo, do you suppose she just forgot about it, or thought it was too old? Can you imagine – with as many hats as she has worn over the years – how many Queen Elizabeth must have? I understand they never throw anything away and have the clothing of many Kings and Queens in storage.
The green hat (in the linked photo) was taken in 2008. The Duchess wore this hat as recently as July 2010 so I expect it’s still in her wardrobe somewhere!
Interesting side note- when I was at Windsor Castle 5 years ago, our tour guide was exceptionally knowledgeable (she had worked there for more than 30 years). Someone asked about what the Queen does with all her clothes; our guide told us when the Queen is finished with an outfit, her dressers remake the outfit (change a neckline, put on a different style of sleeve sort of thing) so that it is slightly changed from how the Queen wore it, then donate it to a charity shop in Windsor. The tour guide told us there were several old age homes that purchased many of these dresses. I though the image of a room full of old ladies dressed in the Queen’s dresses was absolutely delightful!
Where can I get me one of those dresses?!! LOL!!
I really like this pink hat but I agree with you gals that a green one would have matched this pretty flowered dress more.
First of all….I don’t really like this particular floral print. Awfully matronly. And I agree, another hat would have looked much better.
Well, I don’t really mind it. I like the combination of pink and green, and I don’t think the turquoisey blue is prominent enough to detract from the overall pink and green impression. I don’t think the blue hat would have been very good, because it would have looked like a colour-match that didn’t come off. The green one is lovely, though. And I really like the dress too, for the occasion, the whole look is very summer partyish
maybe it’s new and she couldn’t wait to wear it?
I get new things all the time and wear them right away. I just make sure I wear them with something that will actually MATCH. it’s not rocket science, seriously.
no. this is bad. BAD. green hat would have been OK. dress is ugly no matter what hat you put with it.