Members of the Belgian Royal Family attended an annual Mass at Église Notre-Dame in Laeken, Belgium yesterday to commemorate the lives of deceased Royal Family members. Queen Mathilde wore a new chocolate brown felt calot style hat with a large spray of leaves on the side. This is not a colour we have seen her wear very often and I thought it was a great millinery look for her
Designer: unconfirmed. Likely Fabienne Delvigne
Queen Paola wore a tall classic black rounded pillbox hat. The way she wore this new hat, back on the crown of her head, allowed her white hair to create the most marvelous contrast with the hat and I thought she looked very, very chic.
Princes Marie Esmeralda (younger half-sister of King Albert) wore a wide navy blue fabric headband was trimmed with a large medallion on the side. I suppose I like it, although I would have love it if it had been a full-blown pillbox hat. Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein (niece of King Albert, the daughter of his sister Grand Duchess Josephine of Luxembourg) wore what looked to be a sedate, flat black pillbox.
Princess Léa (wife of King Albert’s late half-brother Prince Alexander) wore a wide headband in light brown fur. I am not usually a fan of headbands of any type but I must admit that this one, paired with a matching wrap and Léa’s flowing blonde hair, was ski-bunny glamour at its best.
Which one of these royal hats was your favourite? You might want to compare the hats worn at this same event last year.
Photos from Patrick van Katwijk via Dutch Photo Press
Royal Hats 
Princess Margaretha pillbox- way too small for her face, or need to place it differently..
Princess Léa – love her little muff , but headwrap so wrong for official occasion ( in UK – this is appropriate around stables – for warmth&comfort but not “ski hat” , in fact it is sort of uniform of all “point to point” attendees)
well , must say not a big fan of headbands( especially in sinamay, like on Princes Marie Esmerelda), full hat so much nicer!
Queen Mathilde and Queen Paola – perfection in :size/ color /style /event!
Queen Paola’s hat is my favorite. Its shape highlights the former Queen’s new haircut. Smashing.
The fancy (spray of leaves) side of Queen Matilde’s hat is interesting, especially with her jacket front, which looks rather like Persian lamb.
Wonderful to see Queen Paola returning to the marvelous large pillbox hats she wore in the 1960s.
Mathilde’s hat is great, also her hair, those soft curls are so pretty.
Queen Paola’s hat is very chic. But surely too tall (and a bit slopey) to be a pillbox…. 😉
I really like Mathilde’s hat too. Can’t say I’m keen on the headbands for this sort of formal occasion.
Ah… and, if you check out it on wiki, you’ll notice that Princess Marie-Esméralda and Prince Alexander is King Albert’s half-siblings.
They have different mothers, the first wife of King Leopold III of Belgium, Queen Astrid of Belgium (nee, Princess of Sweden) produced Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg, King Baudouin and King Albert II.
On the other hand, Princess Lilian of Belgium or the Princess of Réthy (nee, Mary Lilian Baels) produced Prince Alexander, Princess Marie-Christine and Princess Maria-Esméralda. Therefore, it would be correct to call them half siblings.
Good point. Here in North America, half siblings are often called “step” brothers and sisters, as I did in the post.
I like the color and style of Queen Mathilde’s hat, but the fur on her dress makes her body king of chubby.
Repeating words, but surely Queen Paola looks chic and marvelous. Black really goes on with her white short hair!!
And it would be more nice if Princess Marie-Esméralda’s had a top on her hat, but her enitre style looks elegant and well.
I don’t mind of Princess Léa’s hat and coat, but if her hair was tied up back it will look less messy and brighten up her style.
Thanks for showing these magnificent hats on your site.I really appreciate you for letting us to watch the millinery fashion of the royals~
I liked Queen Mathilde’s hat the best. I also really liked Queen Paola’s hat. It looked really nice with her new haircut!