King Willem Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands welcomed King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium for a visit today (as is customary for a new king and queen to pay a visit to their more senior colleagues). After touring the Hague, the Belgian couple were guests for lunch at in Noordeinde Palace.
Queen Máxima wore a large rounded navy pillbox. While this was an unusually simple hat for her, it was offset by the rather dramatic (and unattractive, if you ask me), navy bow on her dress.
Designer: Bettina Thomas. Dress by Jan Taminau
Previously Worn: This hat is new
Queen Mathilde continued her streak of enviable statement hats with this wave-shaped hat in bright magenta wool felt. A great scale and shape on Mathilde, my only quibble here is the bow on the back of the hat, which is a little sloppy
Designer: Fabienne Delvigne
Previously Worn: This hat is new
It looks like a very enjoyable visit was hat by all. Now – what did you think of the hats?
Photos from Patrick van Katwijk and Patrick van Katwijk via Corbis; Michel Porro via Hello Magazine; and Michel Porro via Zimbio
Royal Hats 
Curiously enough, while I don’t dislike the huge bow and quite like both hats, I can’t get my eyes off of hands… the dark gloves with naked arms (on a presumably rather chilly day) for Maxima, the Belgian king and queen hand in hand – aren’t they cute?
What can one say about Queen Max, she is always trying something new and sometimes it a hit or a miss, the *hat* is fabulous and the color, this navy really suits Max, the dress, why oh why that ugly bow……way to big, it overpowers that whole outfit. Maybe she wants to standout in the crowd and be seen, she sure di that with this dress. Queen Mathilde’s hat and dress are great, I love her hat, very pretty and suits her.
The dress is awful. I do like the pillbox! Mathilde looks great!
They both look fabulous. I love Max’s dress – and bow. If you downsized the bow by 50% as others have suggested – it would have been a huge YAWN!!!
I love it all! Both hats, both dresses, both colors, both couples!
This seems to be Mathilde’s “go to” dress style, she has worn it often in many different fabrics and levels of formality, and it works well for her….hat is not a personal favorite here, but she always gets points for trying.
Dear Max, she’s more fun than a barrel full of Princess Margarets! This is absolutely the apex pillbox…just perfect – scale, hairstyle, how she wears it – even in it’s austerity. The dress either helps or harms — it’s a coin toss. One way or the other, it’s absolutely Maxima, bless her royal heart!
These hats are just elegance . Love them both. Love the placement of the pillbox and the wave hat. perfect.
Now this hat of Maxima’s could serve as our definition of a pillbox! As pillboxes go, it’s a good one, and very well planned to play second fiddle to the statement dress (if I can put it like that…) I love Mathilde’s hat! Gorgeous shade, flattering shape and a lot of interest, kept within bounds by all being a single colour.
How nicely coordinated the two couples are – notice how the ties the men are wearing echo the colors of the ladies dresses, subtly. I love Mathilde’s hats lately as well – I like the bow and wave shape very much. She looks great. Maxima also looks wonderful though I would downsize her bow about 50%, that way, it still has that dramatic feature but not so cartoonishly large. I really like wool felt for a hat material.
Both bows are awful. The bow on the back of Mathilde’s hat looks off but I don’t know why.
I love both of these hats, and I think both Queen’s look absolutely lovely. Everything is perfect except for that hideous bow. Now where did I put those scissors! 🙂
Absolutely love both hats:) The bow could be downsized a bit, but then it would not reflect Queen
Maxima’s true style.
I just love Queen Maxima’s pillbox hat. I don’t like that bow on her dress but I love her hat.
Oh my! Is Max channeling Mable with this bow? I barely can look at the hat…cannot get past the bow.
Same here. The hat is irrelevant and diminished in the context of THE BOW.