As we have already looked at the hats worn by her mother and grandmothers, let’s now turn our view to the hats worn by guests at Princess Amalia’s baptism ten years ago.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, who was named one of Princess Amalia’s godmothers, wore a hat I absolutely adore on her. This chocolate brown straw picture hat designed by Irish milliner Philip Treacey featured Treacy’s signature figure-8 looped bow as a minimalist trim. The bow, in pink, coordinated beautifully with Victoria’s tailored pink suit, and created such a chic ensemble.
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Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg wore a juicy lime green.straw hat with oval, upturned brim edged in bubblegum pink. The high contrast colour combination was echoed in her suit to create a fantastic overall ensemble. My only quibble was the brim of her hat, which seemed a too large for Maria Teresa.
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Princess Mathilde of Belgium (as she was known then) wore a pale gold mushroom-shaped straw hat designed by Fabienne Delvigne. This hat shows Mathilde’s streamlined millinery style a decade ago and makes such an interesting comparison with the bright and more daring hats she wears today.
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Princess Laurentien wore one of the most interesting hats at this event. Made of three layers of red straw, this hat flowed over Laurentien’s head like a wave (notice there is no specifically formed crown) and raised vertically on one side. Trimmed with a large bow and feathers on the raised side, the hat made quite a statement. I think I would have liked it much better had it not been paired with Laurentien’s busy, patterned jacket and necklace.
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Princess Mabel, in comparison, looked serene and very streamlined in a white picture hat with a square crown. The unusual proportion of the large brim and short crown on this hat creates much visual interest on this hat (something that is created on most other hats by embellishment). At the time, Mabel was a newcomer to the Dutch Royal Family and had worn many outfits with bows (something I was never a fan of) and I thought this clean-lined and bow-free coat and hat were such an elegant look for her.
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Other members of the Dutch royal family were also in attendance for Princess Amalia’s christening. Princess Margriet wore a white picture hat with floppy brim and red flower on the side. Princess Irene wore a beautiful black hat with flat crown and brim, trimmed with a Chanel-esque pink rose on the side. And Princess Christina wore a sunny yellow pillbox trimmed with a flower and trailing looped ribbon. This pillbox remains one of my favourite ever hats on Princess Christina.
Princess Marilène wore a royal blue ensemble topped with an elegant straw hat. The brim of the hat gently rolled up around her face and created the most flattering and beautiful hat shapes on her. When the proportions of a hat are just right for the wearer, the hat ‘sings’ and I think such was the case with this hat on Marilène.
Princess Annette wore a white hat in an oversize cloche shape with a tall, rounded crown and low brim. While these photos do not share the detail of this hat (I believe there was a white ribbon around the crown and the edge of the brim), it still seemed a little too big for petite Annette.
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Princess Anita wore a sea foam green straw picture hat draped in a vine of straw leaves. I love this hat much more now than I did at the time, and appreciate such interesting trim that does not involve flowers or feathers! The trailing vine framed Anita’s face so beautifully and the large scale of the hat was wonderful on her. Princess Aimée wore a small bucket hat in pale pink with a soft, ruched scarf around the crown. I particularly like how the soft pink of her hat coordinated with the darker pink of her suit.
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All in all, Princess Amalia’s christening was a colourful day of royal hats, wasn’t it? I am curious- do you find that time has been kind to these hats or do they seem dated and best left as a memory?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
Thanks HatQueen for giving us a journey down memory lane. I love all the hats here, and would love to borrow them all, and I think they are timeless, well-designed hats, and it is so good to see proper hats worn to a Christening, rather than people going hatless or wearing fascinators or weird head-dresses, that we have seen at other major royal events in recent times. I do like the many classic styles of hat here. My only gripes are that while I do like Princess Irene’s beautiful black brimmed hat and rose trim, I just don’t think people should wear black to a Christening; Princess Laurentien’s wave-like hat was unique, and I did like the large bow and feather trim on the raised side, and I also like that it was simple on the other side, so photographed quite differently from different angles, however, it was too busy when paired with Laurentien’s Oriental influenced bright patterned jacket and huge necklace; and while I liked Princess Marilène’s choice of royal blue and her simple, classic straw hat, I don’t like such shiny fabric for day wear.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden takes the prize here in my view, as the entire outfit, including the wide-brimmed hat, flattered her perfectly. I do love the chocolate and pink combination on her.
Thank you so much Hat Queen for going back in time: at that day and age I just looked at the few pics that were available in magazines. Hope you will keep on surprising us! Love to see my two all time favourites: Grand duchess MT and princess Irene. Love MT’s outfit, such a pity that she is not wearing as much colorful things as she used to (apart from the shocking pink and way too shiny coat and hat). This is so lovely and appropriate for a girl’s baptism.
One of the few outfits of princess Irene I do not like, but such a nice touch, the pink flower.
It is good to see proper hats at a baptism after the fascinator fest at the recent Swedish event. I particularly liked the hats on Victoria and the Grand Duchess and the quieter colour scheme and attractive line of the Grand Duchess’s outfit. Much better than the recent shiny pink coat dress with beret style hat for her.There is much to like about most of the hats but I am glad to see Mathilde wearing more colour these days. Most of the hats still look good today. Special marks for Mabel’s dashing big hat and for Aimee’s pretty pink bucket. I/d like to see them again.
Laurentien has way too much going on but Mabel is perfection!
I think a lot of the hat shapes still work today but it’s the colour combinations that date the hat. I really like Victoria’s hat but the pink and chocolate (or remember pale blue and chocolate?!) are so early 2000s.
The only hat I don’t really care for is Laurentien’s, but I adore all the others! Particularly Victoria’s & Maria-Teresa’s & Marilene’s. Friso & Constantijn could have been twins, couldn’t they?
Princess Victoria has never looked better! I have also never seen Princess Anita’s hat and it is so fun.