Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, attended the Opening Ceremony for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games today. The Queen, who is Patron of the Commonwealth Games Federation and officially opened the games, debuted a new hat for this occasion.
This Angela Kelly design features another Oblique Brim, a sharply edged crown and a spray of flowers, silk leaves and feathers on the side. The crown and underside brim of hat is covered entirely in appliqued lace. The lace makes this hat for me as it provides such a lovely textural detail and beautifully frames the Queen’s face. My problem is with the embellishment on the side of the hat- I think it’s too much, too small and too fussy.
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Royal Hats 
The lace is fine (pretty, even) but I’m sorry, it looks like a bird flew into the side of that hat.
This is not anything that I dislike about this hat, it is just PERFECT, I love everything about it, the color, the lace, the style even the little thing on the side. This is one of now my favorite hats of hers…wonder if I can borrow it….lolololololo
Perfect, all the way around. I can find no fault. HM looks lovely!
I caught a bit of the opening ceremony on tv this morning – and it happened to be the Queen’s speech. Thought she looked fabulous and loved the hat (although now I’ve seen the detail, I’m sorry for her, it’s not very nice). But people in the stadium would have been seeing what I saw and she looked great, as someone said already, rested and happy. Her delighted hand clap when the *two* men finally got the lid off the baton was hilarious, I thought she looked like she wanted to say “give it here and I’ll do it myself”.
I have trawled through photos of this event. I understand that the forecast temperature was 18-19 degrees centigrade, enough to warrant a light coat for many of us. Better to be warm than cold and the Queen can be the judge of her level of comfort. She was shown wearing a smart long sleeved dress without the coat. I thought her hat looked lovely especially side on at the lectern with the light shining through the lace. I really haven’t seen a clear photo of the decorations that have offended others so won’t comment. All in all she looked exactly as I want my head of state and patron of the Commonwealth Games to look as such an event: visible, in a neutral colour so as not to favour any Commonwealth country, with a well executed coat and matching hat, nothing too tight or creased, a beautiful brooch – every inch the Queen. I don’t get the comment about the scallops and black shoes. They look fine to me in the long shot above.
Well it’s more successful than the one for the Coronation service. The texture works well with this shape I think.
But blimey – we’re in the middle of a heat wave here, it’s boiling. I cannot believe she was all tweed coat and hat in these temperatures. The poor woman should have been melting, yet still managed to look cool as anything. Amazing really…
Perhaps I shall be in the minority but I really like Her Majesty’s choices today. I also very much liked the outfit worn for The Thames Pageant, so perhaps no surprise there as they are similar. I much prefer this to the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games where I thought HM looked overdressed. I watched a delayed telecast of the ceremony and I think the outfit looks better in movement than in stills. The upturned brim of the hat is a good look IMO and the proportions are good. Up close, and in isolation, the lace maybe looks a little OTT, but not too jarring for my taste obviously. Oh, and the brooch. Wowser! I love it. I think HM looked very regal today. Thanks.
This outfit reminds me both of the Thames River pageant white outfit and of the 60th coronation anniversary off-white outfit. Neither outfit in general nor hat in specific was particularly attractive, and I don’t care for today’s outfit or hat either. All three outfits are obviously extremely expensive material but too over-detailed. Today’s fabric is busy, plus the border trim, plus the scalloping. Too much! And yes, the crown of the hat is not too tall, but appliquéd lace, plus the angle of the hat, plus the flowers, leaves, feathers. Too, too much! One can’t concentrate of any one thing.
Since the Queen almost always wears black shoes, this needs to be taken into consideration when designing an outfit, and as Jane pointed out, the scalloped edge of the dress is too jarring a contrast to the black shoes. This alone really makes the entire outfit unattractive.
The last two photos are the most flattering, since some of the details are not visible. When viewed as a whole, though, this entire outfit is just too overworked.
Snug Harbor, you took the words right out of my mouth! As usual, the main problem with Angela Kelly designs is way too much trimming. The lace trim alone was enough on this hat. I even liked the scalloped hemline, but not with those black shoes, and the large black bag distracts the eye. I know the Queen in not a young lady, and wants to wear safe, lower heeled shoes, but there are plenty such shoes that come in different designs and colors, and Heaven knows why she usually carries such a large, boring black bag!
The fussy bit is definitely less than a good fit for this hat…and something about the scale just seems slightly off to me. Can’t quite put my finger on what’s not working.
While I am not a fan of lace, I do think that the hat and outfit work well together. The white (or ivory? difficult to tell where I am) always looks well on HM and that brooch (not one of my favorites) really pops!
First, HM looks wonderful — smiling, rested, happy to be where she is!
The lace on the hat works by repeating scalloped hems on the ensemble overall, and is really quite nice. The hat shape is really flattering on HM, and the crown is not so tall as to enter Mad Hatter territory.
The devil is in the details, however, and the wad of fussy random trim on the side seems just too jumbled and incoherent to work.
Where less would be more (a single striking white bloom? larger Ostrich feathers repeating the ‘paisley’ shape of the lace?) — instead we see a jumble that appears to be a handful of workroom rubbish stuck on randomly.
Still, the overall look is charming, and HM makes it work. Perhaps this ensemble will reappear (with remodeled hat trim please) should HM and the DofE reaffirm their wedding vows in the next few years, it would be perfect!
I imagine the brim holds the hat in place so the angle is maintained by the wearer. Everything seems fine until the coat is shown in a complete shot…I am afraid the Queen is too short to wear a large scalloped edge plus black shoes. The top of the coat is an improvement over what we have seen recently. Sorry this is about hats but we see how the hats go with the outfit.
I like the hat.
I quite like this on QEII – it’s ornate with all the appliques but it works well with the coat and remains ‘within tasteful boundaries’ in it’s creamy off white shade.
well, the crown is not too tall. scalloped lace is ok. What is that -blue petals on top? What I don’t like is that band sticking out below the brim on her left side. other than that, I think I like it!.
I don’t ‘read’ that as a hat band – it looks like HM hair to me.
It is the bottom part of the crown of the hat. If you look at Angela Kelly’s other designs like this, you will see that the brim is diagonally attached to the crown so on one side, the crown sticks out the bottom.