The Duchess of Cornwall (née Camilla Shand, previously Parker Bowles) celebrates her 66th birthday today. Camilla has officially been in royal life for eight years, although her presence um… on the sidelines, shall we say, makes it feel like it has been much longer. Past scandal aside, Camilla has proven herself to be a hardworking and personable member of the British Royal Family who genuinely cares and is involved with the charities she supports. With the help of British milliner Philip Treacy, she has also emerged as a MAJOR royal hat wearer known her large brimmed, dramatic and feathered hats. It’s nearly impossible to find Camilla wearing a hat without feathers; to celebrate her birthday today, I thought we’d look back at one of her most prolific feathered headpieces. This headpiece was last seen at Zara Philip’s wedding in 2011 and I think it is just marvelous.
Designer: Philip Treacy
Previously Worn: July 30, 2011; June 14, 2008
Photo from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
I remember the first time I saw this hat, I was left speechless. This rottweiler (as she has unfairly been called in the press) has truly become a swan.
love the hat with the necklace and green coat.
I find this a little over the top. It’s just too much.
I agree. This looks ridiculous.
If only Charles and Camilla had not been barred from getting together as youngsters because of the archaic view for a virginal bride ( scapegoat in Diana’s case), how different history might have looked. Since Camilla joined the BRF officially she has been a great asset. She has given Charles a new lease of life: helping and supporting him in his royal duties and what must seem like an interminable wait for kingship, slowly being accepted by the public as a “good sort”; undertaking her own solo engagements with great humour and an easy manner and by all appearances developing a companionable relationship with Diana’s sons.
She wears wonderful hats, and is increasingly one to watch for her classical yet stylish wardrobe. I love those huge brims and the feathers, although the one pictured does not sit shape-wise as well with her hair as her wedding choice did. She dons the big-gun tiaras with aplomb!
(Like everyone else I miss Diana and her wonderful fashions, but history dealt her a double-edged sword).
The Duchess of Cornwall does wear some fantastic hats! And I love the necklace/choker too. I have read that Camilla is a wonderful and warm person. People who know her love her. The best to the Duchess.
I don’t agree with how she and Charles carried on when they were both married but they did do right in the end. I don’t like this hat at all. She looks like she stuck the trimmings from a boxwood bush on her head.
I am much older than Diana was and not quite as old as Charles and Camilla – but like most I found myself taking sides in all that messy stuff that eventually ended what was a doomed marriage from the start it seemed as time went along. But I have to say, my feelings have mellowed over time…Camilla and Charles really have seemed happy and that makes the family work better all the way around. Camilla as you said is been a very hard worker – if she had not – I don’t think the Brits would have put up with her very well at all…and she has seemed to pull Charles up too so that what ‘jobs’ he does are a lot wider in variety and he is equally as busy and not as remote as he once was. As far as her style…I think it’s been mostly great…love her hats – she can really wear em =- that and the tiaras that no one else in the family can really pull off very well but for the couple of big guns QEII will come out in on occasion…I thought when I first saw Camilla wearing monster tiaras that it was not in good taste…now I have changed my mind..I like seeing ’em and it’s the only way I will see them. She looks great in the Queen Mum’s old fav (one of many) – the Borchard tiara. I do wish she would get better support under garments however – but then Sophie is looking like she is going to have the same problem before too long…it happens as you get older to most women. QEII’s just don’t seem as noticeable due to the style of clothing she wears and she is so short – but that said – having lots to look at on the top of one’s head pulls everything up – esp. the eyes of where I am looking and checking out first – so keep up the big ’ems Camilla – the pouf hair is not Beatrice like – it sort of has more feathering and the color is good on Camilla. I think she’s been over all a positive thing in a whole lot of ways which had to have been very hard for her to step into the role she took on. she truly seems to enjoy working hard. I think she is probably a lot smarter than anyone knows or gives her credit for being…Charles is exceptionally intellectual and he must have found an equal to grow up and now grow old with.
This first hat you picked to feature is classic Camilla and it works now 3 years later as well as it did when we first saw it…she can wear it again anytime it’s ‘in season’ far as I am concerned! I think she will need to give Catherine tiara wearing lessons!!! Probably will be left up to Camilla and Sophie to teach her the ropes in that dept.
In my opinion The Duchess of Cornwall is the best dressed member of the Royal family, her natural beauty shines through all her outfits and she wears large hats which not only suit her but they are real hats! I am so tired of the Duchess of Cambridge’s nonsense hats which look like buns perched on the top of her too long hair. The rule is and always was a hat or hair and it is about time the not so young duchess learnt this valuable rule.