One of the royal hat wearers with the most distinctive style is Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands who celebrates her 77th birthday today. Just as we have done with other royal birthdays so far this year, we will use this celebration today to consider which one of Princess Beatrix’s past hats you would like to see come back into service this year. My pick is this Suzanne Moulijn design in pale grey-beige straw with upturned double brim. I usually prefer Princess Beatrix in more vibrant tones but the diagonal layered brim on this hat frames her face so beautifully, making this one of my favourites in her millinery closet.
Is there a particular hat you would like to see Princess Beatrix repeat in 2015?
Princess Beatrix attending the 85th birthday of the Rheuma Foundation in The Hague, November 18, 2011
Photo by Patrick van Katwijk via Corbis
Royal Hats 
This is OK but still not great. I wish someone would design hats for HER instead of just her hair.
HatQueen my family and I all agree that your selection is one of the former Dutch Queen’s best hats. The asymmetry makes it less like a cake, which is the problem with many of her other hats.
I’d like some more color! It seems lately that she has worn only neutral hats and a lot of black, navy, brown.
My favourite hat of hers is the pink one with the split brim with the flowers sandwiched between them. It also gave rise to a funny meme with a kitten in the space. Please see this link if you are interested.
https://royalhats.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/who-designs-queen-beatrixs-hats/
I liked that one also Alex. I had never seen a split brim prior to that.
Thank you Hat Queen and Alex. She had more variety than I realized. The two pink and the purple discussed here are beautiful. I also really liked the 2nd hat in your photos, the slant, the simplicity, and once again the pink looks lovely on her. The last hat (purple) is quite nice but does need the slant. Grand total for me 3 great pink hats, and 2 great purple hats.
I agree with what you wrote.
she wears alway big hats, a small hat will nice too.
My family and I agree that this pink hat posted by Alex was one of her best hats.
Thank you Alex, this is my all-time favourite hat of former Queen Beatrix.
so beautiful, nice color, nice hat, nice dress, also the beige dress is in a magnifique material. she looks prima.
Oh that pink is magnificent on her, Thank You James B, I like the wider brim and the 2 colors are so well matched for this hat. This could be my all time favorite hat on her….hope to see it again this summer perhaps….
I love the picture hat, pale pink in color, that Princess Beatrix wore in 2004 to her granddaughter’s christening. She looked so summery in this hat and was such a departure from her usual hats that are her signature.
oh, that Pink one is magnificent! Thank you James B. It is sitting on her head at an angle and not plopped just straight down as it seems to me most of them are. This is bright and cheery and just beautiful.
Princess Beatrix suits the diagonal layered brim but I can’t like the grey-beige color on her. She suits bright colors best. So I am going with the pink hat suggested by JamesB.
For King Willem and Queen Maxima’s wedding on February 2, 2002 (13 yeas ago today!), she wore a hat with a similarly shaped double brim but in the most beautiful shades of purple. It is certainly more vibrant than my initial suggestion but with the same, graceful shape.
Thanks HatQueen, this purple hat is really good on her. I haven’t seen it before.
HatQueen my family and I agree that this is one of her best hats.
Thanks you HatQueen, I had forgotten about this hat. It is a great shade of purple for her. It’s still a little on the cake side for me though so i wouldn’t wear it myself for that reason.
I don’t remember seeing that hat before, but it is lovely and it looks really good on her. It is different from her usual hats, which I really like. She always looks great, regardless.
Now that is pretty special.
Hmm, can’t say this one excites me too much… It’s one of her standard cakes with its upturned brim. He one I really love is the multi pink one (which is #155 from hour round up a couple of years back). It’s a bit more regular, but utterly stunning and beautiful colours.
The pink hat you suggest is stunning, indeed!
HatQueen my family and I agree that this is one of the Dutch Queen’s best hats ever.
I think the colour and shape of this hat is just perfect on former Queen Beatrix.
I do like some of her hats, but so many of them are just too big, like she got them to fit her hair & not her face. But if she likes them that way, then more power to her!!