Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh attended Sunday service yesterday at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in West Newton, near their estate in Norfolk. The Queen repeated a pale pink felt hat with curved brim, trimmed with a velvet ribbon around the crown and a spray of pink rosettes and pink and gold lanky leaves at the side. The slightly masculine shape of this hat, with a Pork Pie crown and fedora style raised brim, is a departure for Queen Elizabeth and works very well for her. What doesn’t work so well, I’m afraid, is the gold and cream embroidery that covering the crown. While the idea of embroidery on a felt hat is a creative one indeed, it pushes this hat into “overdone” territory. I think the added touches of gold put this hat it at odds with the simple pink herringbone fabric of the Queen’s coordinating coat and bring an odd disco-esque vibe to this ensemble.
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Unusually, photos from this event included a close-up of the Queen’s diamond studded hat pin. Unlike most of her other hats, which have coordinating hat pins made to match, Queen Elizabeth has paired this particular hat with this gold and silver pin. I suspect this pin, which depicts a gold hand holding an Olympic style torch, carries some sort of personal significance for the Queen as it was highlighted in Angela Kelly’s 2012 book, Dressing the Queen.
Designer: Philip Somerville or Angela Kelly. The leaves are very similar to other Angela Kelly designs.
Previously Worn: October 26, 2012; March 23, 2012; June 6, 2009; Jan 27, 2009; December 4, 2008; October 23, 2008; March 24, 2008
While Queen Elizabeth wears pale pink very well, I think this is a hat that looks best at a distance. What do you think?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
I LOVE it! Love the shape. Somehow, it reminds me of America. LOL
Love the shape. Like the gold fishnet. Don’t like the saccharine colour. HATE those horrible flowers stuck on the side.
This hat’s shape is a welcome departure from the steady supply of Angela Kelly hats! The embellishment works here for HM. Would this hat work on any other royal lady? Probably not, but it’s great for HM!
Could anyone help me to understand how hatpins work to anchor a short-haired woman’s hat? I’ve always thought they were used to poke into one’s bun, chignon, etc. HM always has hatpins but how do they actually help?
Good question- does anyone have any ideas? I wonder if large amounts of hairspray or pin curls are the magic trick?
Wendy, I think some sections of The Queen’s hair are twisted into a pincurl, then the hatpin is aimed to go through these. That is how my short-haired mother has anchored her hats. I think the Queen mainly uses long, knitting needle sized hatpins, so they would be woven through several sections of her hair. Even though her hair is short, it is still long enough the pull the top sections upward and make a couple of mini-chignons on top of her head, for the hatpins to go through, or weave in a wiglet or two to create more bulk, and work the hatpins through those, which is how my late great-aunt did it. The Queen probably also has combs sewn to the underside of her hats to help anchor them. There is an article about this with a video in the third link below. I found an interesting article about hatpins in this link. I was surprised to learn there exists the American Hatpin Society!
http://www.americanhatpinsociety.com/
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/an-interview-with-antique-hatpin-collector-jodi-lenocker/
http://handinhandmade.com/2014/02/25/just-how-do-those-little-hats-stay-put/
Great research! Thanks for sharing this, TiarasRUS!
I really enjoyed reading your post and the material on the links TiarasRUs.I can’t comprehend that there is an American Hatpin Society but I guess there are more hatpin lovers out there than I imagined!
Thanks to TiarasRUs for providing these interesting links. My grandmother collected hat pins, and some were enamel or pearl and very unusual, but my mother gave them away to her friends when she died. What a shame we no longer have them to pass to our daughter, who loves to wear hats.
I know I’m in a minority, but to me this hat shape is just a casual shape, whatever the colour, trim etc – so not my favourite for a royal except in casual circumstances. Don’t like the flowers at all, they look like they are made of icing for a cake. However, I do like the close-up of the netting effect in gold, and would like to see a different hat featuring the same effect. But you are quite right, Hat Queen, it is much better from a distance, and overall the outfit is fine. (I love the Saskatchewan brooch – lovely colours, clearly modern design without being jarring or ugly.)
My family and I are very late to comment but we agree with Bristol. We will probably vote for this at a Least Favourite Hats of 2015 Poll.
I must agree with your post Bristol.
Queen Elizabeth’s hat has too much trim for my taste. I like the shape of the hat, though it does tend to channel a cowgirl hat. I don’t think the gold works with this pale pink colour. The hat pin is interesting. But it doesn’t work with the pink. The coat is not well-tailored and the low collarless neckline looks too casual and too low for a winter coat. The heavy pleats on the dress underneath are ugly and add bulk to her small frame. I don’t like the tourmaline brooch either, and to me it looks like oddments from 2 or 3 broken brooches were combined to make a new brooch. Overall, I like this colour on the Queen but this isn’t a winning look for her.
The Queen looks lovely in just about any color she wears. Although I love pink, it does seem this soft color is appearing maybe a little bit too early in the season; the Queen does look a little bit too chilly to be comfortable.
This has been one of the Queen’s workhorse outfits for some years now. I really like it – it’s v pale, but quietly elegant. And I’d never really noticed the gold veiling used on the hat before, but I can’t say it upsets me – it gives a bit of extra interest I think. She does look a bit chilly though – it’s freezing in the UK right now!
I like the hat. It’s not as overly embellished as so many of Angela Kelly’s designs. Yes, better from a distance, but still a good one.
I’d love a more indepth look at the Queen’s hat pins. This is one I’d never have noticed without the close up photo. Makes me wonder what else I am missing!
I agree Ruth4663. This gold hat pin is beautiful. Sadly, it doesn’t suit this hat.
This is a beautiful hatpin, and I wonder if the Queen was given it at the Olympics? I would love to know the back story. It’s a shame that it doesn’t suit this hat, which already had a truckload of trim on it.
Quite the fancy cowboy hat, to my eyes.
I agree Jean, it looks like an over-trimmed cowboy hat. I do not like it at all. But the Queen always looks lovely in pink.
I love the shape of this hat. It is elegant and refined and feminine contrary to some of those other Angela Kelly clunkers she wears. The scale is just the right size without overwhelming her and pink really is a fabulous color on her.
I like this outfit a lot, I just wish the pink was a *little* more saturated. I’ve been wondering about the hat pin though. It doesn’t look like it’s at an angle to go through a lock of hair and come out the other side, and HM’s hair is a little short for an updo. How does the hatpin do anything to hold it on? Maybe it’s just some accessorizing to set off the gold in the hat.
I’m surprised that this hat, a staple of the Queen’s for years, is an AK design. While it goes well with the coat, the hat looks particularly out of keeping, I think, when worn with the dress alone:
AK designs usually are better matched to each element individually.
Actually I rather like the gold netting. I knew that there was some sort of pattern up there, but I’d never seen a close-up of the netting before.
Unlike most of Angie’s hats, I like this one. The lace is more of a netting, so it’s not as ornate. The flower seems to be only slightly overworked. But overall the effect is nice.
I’ll likely be in the minority here, but I loved the hat, mesh, shape, and flowers all. Agree major ungepacht, but just a marvelous eccentric old lady hat.
I think it’s just fine…not too much. The hatpin is REALLY neat!
The Queen has a few jewelled (longer) hat pins which she uses at the front of a hat when she feels in need of extra security for her head-wear. This hat, like all others, DOES have matching pins, used at the sides of the hat.
I think the netted embroidery would look fine if it was in a tonal pink shade possibly – but I don’t have a huge issue with it as it is tho is does look a tish like a ‘pimp’ hat (as we called them in the US) from the early 70s (sans the pink shade that is)
I do love softer color and “new” shape on Queen. Over crown of hat stretched veiling in gold and white,but not embroidery
Absolutely agree- leather flowers, embroidered with gold thread flower leaves, gold& white veil over crown – too much!!