The entire Belgian Royal Family (with the exception of Queen Fabiola) attended today’s wedding of Prince Amedeo, Archduke of Austria-Este and Elisabetta Rosboch von Wolkenstein; as such, there were some marvelous royal hats. Princess Astrid, Archduchess of Austria-Este arrived at the Basilica with the groom, wearing a pale headpiece of dove grey rosettes made by Maison Michel Paris. While I was a little puzzled by the widely contrasting textures in her monochrome ensemble, the mix of rosettes in her hair, silk pleats on her dress, nubby bouclé on her jacket and pearls was such a classic Chanel combination that I have decided to love it.
Prince Amedeo’s sister, Princess Maria-Laura of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este, topped her teal lace Valentino frock (the same one Princess Madeleine wore for her daughter’s christening back in June) with a small headband of teal silk blooms. I thought it was odd that she chose a mini version of her mother’s headpiece- while I liked the shape and scale on young Maria-Laura, the colour variations between the headpiece, earrings and dress made the ensemble unsuccessful for me. I hope, however, she keeps this adorable headpiece and wears it again sometime with a different frock.
Prince Amedeo’s other sister, Princess Luisa Maria, acted as chief bridesmaid and did not wear a hat (you can see her here in a white gown, helping Elisabetta with the train on her dress). Prince Amedeo’s maternal grandmother, Queen Paola, wore an unexpected pointed beanie cap in sparkle-studded navy fabric. It was a rather avant garde and modern pairing for her navy silk suit and I adored the colour contrast with her hair. I want so badly to love this very daring piece of millinery but this hat depicting the cosmos might be a little too out there even for me.
While Queen Paola’s hat was bold, Queen Mathilde’s hat was downright bizarre. She topped her exquisite vibrant blue Natan caped dress with a roughly textured, woven leather and fabric, open-topped turban designed by Fabienne Delvigne. From a distance, it looks like she is wearing a bandage wrapped around her head. While I understand the desire to balance the very vibrant colour of her dress with neutral accessories, this heapieces falls flat.
One of my favourite hats of the day was worn by Prince Amedeo’s other maternal aunt, Princess Claire. She topped her bright fuchsia suit with a classic pinky beige picture hat with a square crown and cartwheel brim. The clean lines of the Fabienne Delvigne designed hat were such a beautiful compliment to her textured suit and the proportion was grand, but not off balance. This is how to do neutral accessories with a bright statement suit.
The groom’s paternal grandmother, Archduchess Margherita of Austria-Este, topped her lovely pink and white floral jacket with a cream picture hat. I thought the pleated white crin edging around the brim gave a soft and very pretty addition to this hat.
Finally, the bride’s mother, Italian film producer Countess Lilia de Smecchia, wore a small green brimless hat in the same fabric as her beautifully layered coat. I thought it was, on all accounts, rather flat.
The Belgian Royal Family are an entertaining bunch when it comes to millinery at major events and today was no exception. Stay tuned tomorrow, when we’ll look at hats worn by other royal guests at this wedding. Until then, which Belgian royal hat was your favourite?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
was the Mother of the Bride wearing a bra?? Sorry to be so personal, but she doesn’t look very well supported in anyway!
Details about Astrid’s hat. http://instagram.com/p/qJO7jUCgCl/
Firstly thank you once again for fabulous coverage I really enjoyed it. And that you are mentioning the fashion as welldas hats!
Matilde. Oh Matilde. Just NO!!!
Loved the bride’s mother s outfit and dainty hat but oops to the messy hair. Wouldnt see Carole M with that!
Loved Astrid s 60s hat / headpiece. Princess Margaret might have worn that in her heyday
I like the mother of the bride’s outfit and hat. I do like this shade of green.
Here is an image of Princess Luisa Maria helping Elisabetta with her dress, she seams to have a simple headband on!
Mathilde borrowed this hat from the grandmother at the Swedish christening in June. Chris’s mother (I think) also wore the zombie look.
For some reason that I can’t express, I liked Mathilde’s hat, though I thought it too casual for the dress/cape
I rather like Paola’s bold titter – I think you can’t always see just how beautiful she was, but with her sleeker hairdo and bold styling, I’m getting it loud and clear. Astrid looks nice, safe for her, but given some of her previous choices (like the double straw hat!) that’s a good thing. And Mathilde. What even is this? It is just awful, and has no link to the dress at all; puzzling indeed.
What was Mathilde thinking? The dress is beautiful. The hat is a disaster! Claire’s hat is the winner in my book and the groom’s paternal grandmother looking totally chic in her ensemble.
I agree with all of your comments, Hat Queen (great job on these posts!). I just want to say that Queen Mathilde’s dress is absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful (the cape is gorgeous). However, it’s ruined by that brown burlap rag on her her head. She has so many other beautiful hats she could have worn instead. WHY did she choose this thing?
I do not like Queen Paola’s hat, it looks way too severe on her. I love the colour of the sister’s Valentino dress, she’s a very naturally attractive young woman. I really like the headpiece but agree the colour is off and the earrings look a little bit too conservative and old style for the overall look and feel of her outfit. What can you say about Mathilde’s (hat?). It’s just ridiculous and doesn’t even suit what she is wearing. Thanks for the interesting posts.
The mothers of the groom and bride both looked very elegant.
Pass….not good.
Mathilda definitely doing a Maxima here, not a good idea (her kind smile makes up for it though). Awful hat and no match at all with the dresscape or how should we call it. If only they would all stop buying at Natan’s, but then Lily’s mum probably did not shop there and also no success although I like the color. Prize goes to Claire, nice hat, nice outfit, like the short sleeves which look less hot. Honorary mention for the grandmother of Amedeo.
Princess Maria-Luisa was the principal bridesmaid.
Cutting edge fashion is not doing these ladies any favours is it? This summer the fashion for odd floral or shiny head pieces and strange cuts to hems is just fashion doing something different for the sake of being different, just because you can doesn’t mean you should, The brides mother just looks awful in that outfit! the wrong shape for her and the wrong length, on a tall, skinny young girl that green elf frock might work but not on such a tiny and mature woman? ugh and messy hair with a lid just so yucky! Queen Paola looks like an air hostess and the bridesmaids and pages are going to want to burn the pictures in a few years. The grooms sister is also a fashion victim here, the carnage is like a Game of Thrones finale!
Oh and the Bride and Groom are just adorable and she looks fantastic, just perfect, dress, hair, tiara and flowers fantastic!
I love Queen Paola’s new, edgier style! Her hair colour and the lenght have been amazing since the inauguration of Philippe and while this hat is a bit weird I really like the whole effect with avant garde style and short hair for an older lady.
I don’t like Paola’s “hat”. It looks like a large dead leaf that she glued sequins on.
I like Astrid´s flowers very much and I think the whole look was great in pale gray.
Queen Mathilde can get her hats so wrong so many times it seems and today was no exception – looks like she borrowed the look from Max! Gads please tell these Euro Royals this is not a happening style and they are not going to set a new trend either! The bride and groom look fabulous and so happy – and Princess Astrid looks particularly fetching — I adore the extra long back veil the bride had affixed to her tiara – I saw photos on the Web of the gown with the devastatingly beautiful veil.
Claire wins this round! Mathilde burlap sack comes dead last! Paola’s hair colour is fantastic but I wasn’t crazy about the hat – I kept thinking it was a flattened eel. Astrid is only in her early 50s – I think this hat is too old for her – makes me think of the Queen Mum. Maria-Laura’s earrings were beautiful but wrong with this green dress.