The second of this year’s summer garden parties was hosted by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in the grounds of Buckingham Palace yesterday. The Queen stepped out for this event in her silk embroidered wool hat with diagonal crown and wired sequin flower trim. As we have discussed during its previous outings, the intricate detail on this hat can only be appreciated from a close view, making this hat an unfortunate choice for this event. With a millinery closet that covers every colour of the rainbow, I wish the Queen would have chosen something a little more vibrant to stand out at this party in her back garden.
Royal Hats
The Bold, Beautiful and Bizarre World of Royal Millinery
I’m going to be an outlier and say I love this outfit! I adore the flecks of color in the material. Yummy.
I disagree with comments that she needed to stand out more. At a garden party she walks among everyone and they can see her up close for the details in her hat. After all, attendance is by invitation only, it’s not a free-for-all out in the streets.
She is one of the beautiful flowers in her garden.
If you fancy an in-depth look at her gardens, check out The Queen’s Garden shown on PBS. A fascinating, inside look at life in these magical lands. How I wish I could visit. What a treat it would be to work there.
Here is the wonderful documentary you suggested. I also recommend it!
Thank you HatQueen for this video. Those flowers are amazing!
Sorry everyone, but I actually like Her Majesty in this! Perhaps it looks a little drab in the stills, but I think there’s enough going on to enable her to be seen. The hat I think is really nicely proportioned- I have always liked this size brim for The Queen and I like the plain contrast trim around the edge. I think the shape is good and doesn’t stray in to comical proportions and yes I also like the floral burst on the side. A small snippet re the coat- the “pocket” that was on the right chest area has been removed. Always interesting to me to see how outfits are tweeked occasionally. Thanks.
Sharp eyes! You’re right: that little pocket has been removed. How odd.
There’s also a short matching jacket for this outfit: http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/EXPNews-AP-I-ENT-England-EXPRE-ROYAL-STATE-VISI-/515be645bf614c87874facca488b2bec/45/0
Can’t see whether it ever had a pocket.
Thanks Snug Harbor. I noticed the shorter jacket too whilst researching my pocket omission theory. Dress, hat, long coat, short jacket- that’s a lot of fabric. Cheers.
Princess Alexandra, as requested:
Thanks for sharing, Bruno Hat. It is the same Rachel Trevor Morgan design that Princess Alexandra wore for the British Red Cross garden party last summer. Lovely hat.
Princess Alexandra looks so good in this shade of blue. I think this is a splendid hat that would look good on most people. Her brooch is stunning too, even though it’s small. Sometimes less really is more.
While I like this ensemble on HM, it seems too wintry for a spring garden party. A rare misstep in my opinion. Also, here’s the tweet from the @BritishMonarchy account about the garden party that includes a photo of Princess Alexandra: https://twitter.com/BritishMonarchy/status/601366011129004032
Forgot to talk about Alexandra: from what I can tell, I like this hat and outfit. Nothing groundbreaking, but very classic and very-Alexandra. Brava!
I don’t like this outfit or hat at all. I wouldn’t wear it myself and I would not think that the Queen should wear it. It simply isn’t good enough for one of the greatest female icons alive today. I know only too well that there are things more important than fashion, but we can still dress well can’t we, and still get the job done. This doesn’t pass muster for me.
This looks too wintery.
This really is one of MrFitzroy’s least favorite outfits in HM current rotation.
It encompasses nearly all of the bad and questionable aspects of Angela Kelly style in one outfit.
While the tweed boucle is perfectly nice, the hat seems off scale and the decorations are poorly considered, forgettable, and fussy. The coat takes the hat problems and multiplies them with the prissy yet hard to see buttons, the strange twee ruffle down the front, and the overall proportions which are just not flattering to HM.
This fabric could have made a lovely suit (with a differently scaled hat) and been quite wonderful….but this ensemble just fails on every level…ASIDE from the fact that the Queen is wearing it, and that in itself helps a lot!
As far as the specific event, it does seem strange that the outfit selected is not a more saturated color given how the garden parties work….strong visible color is so much more event appropriate, as several other commenters have noted.
Unfortunately, that makes this outfit a double fail…..yet HM still manages to look pretty good!
I agree with you mrfitzroyobe.
I agree with all the comments as made by mrfitzroyobe says: May 21, 2015 at 5:21 pm.
I like this outfit. It’s a nice contrast with all the green grass and leaves. Also, a little off-topic but I was wondering if some one could tell me why there were no hats at the flower show and the horse show? Are those considered indoor events? Is church the only place you wear a hat indoors?
Not completely sure, but I think those events just have a less formal tone to them. HM alone has usually worn some form of headgear to the flower show, but skipped it this year. She is fond of her headscarves for the horse show.
I don’t think the Queen has worn a hat to the Chelsea Flower Show since 1970. She usually wears hairnets but thankfully, didn’t this year! As for the Windsor Horse Show- I believe she attends that as a private citizen and not in an official capacity as the sovereign.
Amen to the lack of hairnet this year. I wasn’t sure when she had ditched the hats in favor of those, so thank you for that tidbit.
I believe its because she attends the Chelsea Flower Show after 6 o’clock in the evening and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her wear a hat in the evening.
Although I like this entire outfit very much, it certainly is an odd choice for a Garden Party. It’s a perfect outfit for occasions when the Queen needs to look sedate from a distance but colorful up close.
I am pleased that the hat for this outfit is made from the same tweed as the coat and dress. Solid-color hats with multi-color tweeds tend not to be successful since they can’t match the mottling; unless they’re made from a contrasting color, they appear to be a color mismatch most of the time — as is the case of the Queen’s similar pink outfit with the two mismatching hats: https://royalhats.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/pink-or-pink/
There is also a similar coat in pale blue.
True. As frequently is the case with the Queen’s similar outfits, all three appeared about the same time. It’s as though after a request goes out for a certain type of outfit, all contenders are chosen.
Don’t we all do the same in our own wardrobes? When a certain fashion comes in, we often wear it in more than just one way.
What I appreciate between these three coats is that while they are similar, their corresponding hats are very different.
Hmmm I just took a look at the blue coat. Nice, and the brooch really helps boost the color. Her hat. What words can I use for this? Nice shape. Pretty blue ribbon on it. Is that a small seashell tucked into the center of the ribbon? Such a unique fabric for a hat. yes, those are all the nice words I could come up with.
I was surprised by this choice-she usually selects very bright colors for this event. Did no other family participate? That seems unusual, too. Was this party perhaps smaller than most?
Princess Alexandra was also in attendance.
Thanks for the info! I had only been able to find photos of HM and DOE.
If anyone can find a photo of her, please share the link here!
I am so surprised by this choice! I like a pretty pastel as much as the next gal. She usually wears colors that will distinguish her from the crowd. Especially true of her hats since she is so tiny. Garden parties have huge numbers of people and I can imagine folks leaving, not knowing if they caught a glimpse or not.
I don’t care what color it is – I really dislike this shape intensely – it’s just all wrong in my book. – I could over look the color being washed out in the bright sun it it were a different shape
Now I like her in a bit of tweed, and this is perfectly fine and nice. But not for this gig. A garden party needs something a bit more fun and frivolous, something like last year’s Ascot numbers. A rare outfit to event mismatch for Lil here…
It is drab in comparison to some of her other things, and I wish she would wear a different shape, but I love her, so she gets a pass. She can wear whatever she wants with that beautiful smile, but a nice pop of color is always appreciated.