My post earlier today about the hat worn by the Duchess of Cambridge four years ago yielded a number of interesting comments. One reader reminded me that Kate paired this blue coat with a different hat in 2010; this got me thinking about how hats can look entirely different when paired with different outfits and how some royals (Kate, Princess Mary, Queen Máxima, and The Countess of Wessex to name a few) mix and match their hats with different outfits to varying degrees of success. This inspired a new feature on the blog, something I’m calling “This or That”. Today, I’m going to ask you, dear readers, which of Kate’s hats you prefer with this Jane Troughton brocade coat? I’m interested to hear your opinions!
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
In a cornflower blue Jane Corbet hat for Prince Phillip’s 90th Birthday, June 10, 2011
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
In another Jane Corbet hat for the August 14, 2009 wedding of Hugh Van Cutsem and Alice Haddon-Patten
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
i think i like the first-one (10 june 2010)
Scrolling trough the comments, I guess I am alone in liking the #2 hat much better.
Yes, if you take every detail apart, it might be all the things you listed, but for me it is one of the best looks of Kate’s ever. The colour combination is amazing on her. She has the figure and the face, that goes well with that shape and angle.
I totally agree! I think the round shape of #2 looks great on Kate’s oval face.
The light blue round saucer makes a statement. The dark blue one is vanilla. She’s a princess. She should make a STATEMENT!
I couldn’t agree more! Plus hair done and not just dangling like with the white hat.
I really like the coat. To my eye it works best with the darker hat. The lighting is also a factor I feel as the photos taken with the dark hat are in shadow and the ones with the light hat in sunlight.
Good point. I’ve done some photo research and it looks like June 9, 2010 was a rainy, cloudy day. I simply can’t find photos in better light.
I love the coat. The hat in the first picture is the best in my opinion. It matches the color of the dress underneath the coat and the trim around the brim of the hat matches the color in the coat. I love the hat shape also.
Don’t like these hats perched on the front of the head. They look ridiculous and clown-like. But I do think the darker blue hat looks better with the coat.
I like them both but I like #1 the best. Kate’s style has evolved though I wouldn’t mind seeing this coat again with her new style touches. This new post is fun!
#1 is a spaceship. #2 is a leftover plate of food. The coat is old curtains from the Queen Mum’s drawing room. Epic fail all the way around.
I didn’t see it before but now all I can see is a spaceship!! Nevermind. I still like #1 much better with this coat.
Agree!
I think both hats are super cute on Kate. Her coat is so delicate and pretty the flowered hats both go really nice. I can’t choose between them!
I think the dark blue hat is way nicer. It goes better with the coat and part of what makes it look so good is that Kate’s hair is up. When she wears her hair down with hats her hair usually looks messy.
what a great idea for a feature! I like hat #1 best with this coat. I also think the darker dress underneath is better.
I agree. I love the pleats on the darker blue dress.
I agree on all accounts!
The blue with blue is better – but only because I like the blue hat better not because I like the blue coat any better…While kate repeats a lot as do other royals now days to help with public acceptance and perception vs. the whole excess thing that existed with the 80’s Diana days…I cannot see kate ever wearing this coat again – it’s so not her now. Her style is evolved and I would hope she has donated this coat away. The cut of the coat is fine – it’s the fabric that makes it too busy I think….but that hat I could see her doing a repeat of it at some point. Maybe the white one could be re-done and be passable – I think it’s just too saucer like and too white maybe to be helped much by a redesign of it.
She sure likes to wear her hats tipped down low on her forehead. That’s a position (be it tipped to the side and down or centered and down she really keeps going back to.
Maybe she is shy. I would be really shy too if I had all those cameras taking pictures of me.
Um…. their percher hats. Percher hats perch on your head usually on the front or just a little off center from the front. Percher hats are way cooler than boring regular hats.
She has a number of patterned coats she still wears. The cream brocade Birger et Mikkelsen that she wore to Zara’s wedding and the opening of the Paralympic games last summer immediately comes to mind along with her green Mulberry and blue Missoni coats so I don’t know why you think this one doesn’t suit her. Like everyone else, I like the darker hat.
I dont think its an issue of patterned vs. not patterned. I think this coat looks like someone you’d have hanging in your closet, when all her other coats have evolved into bespoke or very tailored pieces. I’m not wild about it and it just doesn’t carry off the same polish. It looks, dare I say, Camilla-ish. (That said, Camilla would ROCK that coat.)
The coat is really mumsy. I like the blue hat but hope we see it again only with something else.
The first hat. The second is too white.
MrFitzroy also, regrettably needs to vote for neither. The first hat, from the side looks quite delightful. From the front, it’s entered the ‘A. Kelly craft project’ zone. A headpiece for a little girl playing in butterfly in a kindergarten pageant. The second hat swings and misses….the shape is intriguing, but the embellishments ruin it, the result is sort of a mutant spawned from one of Empress Michiko’s tiny saucer hats. That said, Kate looks awful in neither, but not great either.
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THANK YOU. The coat is awful and both hats are disasters. Two of her worst looks. Next.
the darker blue is far more chic and complimentary to the ensemble
There shore is a lotta ruckus about these hats!! LOL! I agree that the dark blue one looks nicer with this coat and looks nicer on Kate. The other one looks like a bowl plunked on her head.
Personally, I thing the white one is more flattering color and size-wise. The all blue in the coat, hat and underdress just kinda make the whole outfit less striking to me. That said, I think the white hat is rather juvenile for the Duchess who is so classically inclined in her fashion choices.
Definitely the darker blue.
I agree, I think #1 is the best, the color is a much better match with that coat.. #2 is way too dark with that coat. #3.. the colors work with the color picked out from her dress and the coat, but I don’t like the style of hat at all.. very much insect antennae looking.
Can neither be an option? I so wish Kate would ditch the “toppers/fascinators” and wear some real hats. A nice hat is so much more flattering.
I have to agree with the suggestion that Kate should start wearing real hats.
I like the shape and style of the darker hat and the color of the lighter hat. The pattern in this coat looks better with the lighter dress and hat but the shape of the flatter, darker hat is much more flattering on Kate.
WOW! It is amazing how a different hat (and hairstyle) can totally change the look of an outfit. I think the best option would be the coat with the grey dress underneath and the darker blue that. I agree that the coat looks better with the light dress but I think the darker blue hat is much better. I think these would all look really beautiful together.
I forgot to say that I LOVE this new feature on the blog. It’s so interesting so see the same outfit side-by-side with a different hat. I don’t know how you keep all these hats and outfits straight! I really appreciate how you make this blog so great. It’s one of the best royal blogs on the internet.
Thanks for your kind words. This blog is my labour of love and I am humbled, overwhelmed and just thrilled with the response it receives. I also appreciate my knowledgeable readers who offer gentle correction when I don’t keep things totally straight!
I love this coat on Kate. I think you’re so right about the lighter dress brinnging out the pattern of the coat but the dark hat being a nicer shape and color on Kate. I’d love to see her wear this again with the light dress and the dark hat and some navy pumps and a navy bag. So cute!
How fun! I like the darker blue hat much better.
Thanks for your comment in the last post- it’s what inspired this new feature!
#1 is an easy choice. 2 is unattractive and insect antennae looking
I couldn’t have said it better myself. The first hat is something actually wearable. The second one is a bit of a joke.