Monthly Archives: May 2015

British Royals Enjoy Season’s Third Garden Party

Posted on by

It has been a  busy season of Buckingham Palace garden parties as the Queen hosted the third in as many weeks yesterday afternoon. For this event, Queen Elizabeth repeated her peony pink straw hat with teardrop shaped crown, curved brim and feather trim. While the shape of this hat is not a favourite for me, the Queen wears this bright shade of pink so well and the whimsical feel of the hat feels fitting for a summer party.

Queen Elizabeth, May 28, 2015 in Angela Kelly| Royal Hats

Designer: Angela Kelly
Previously Worn: March 21, 2014; May 14, 2011; February 17, 2011; April 27, 2010; May 21, 2009

Princess Anne, who looked to be enjoying herself immensely, repeated the purple percher hat she wore for the royal wedding in 2011. it seems to me, however, on this outing she changed the angle of the hat’s placement which highlighted its tear drop shape. This change has warmed my reception for this hat and planted a spark of admiration at Anne’s willingness to try a millinery shape so different from what she usually wears.

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: June 21, 2012; April 29, 2011

Princess Beatrice wore a lovely new percher hat described by the designer as an “almond teardrop with silk roses and hand cut feather flowers”. The rosy-tan hue of this piece looks wonderful with Beatrice’s colouring and the lush trimming gives the small hat a substantial sense of occasion. I hope to see this hat again with a different outfit- while the elegant grey dress and white jacket look great on Beatrice, the cool grey hue does not relate in any way to the warm rosy brown hat. This is another case where the individual pieces of this ensemble are individually beautiful but don’t work together.

Designer: Juliette Botterill. It is the “Silk Feather Flower Teardrop” design
Previously Worn: This hat is new

Princess Michael of Kent, who is recovering from eye surgery, coordinated her eyepatch with a black and white ensemble. Her hat, with a squared black crown and oval shaped white brim, was simply trimmed with an oversize white feather. Hats with different coloured crowns and brims can be difficult to balance well (especially with an oval brim) but this one gets it just right.

Princess Michael, May 28, 2015 | Royal Hats

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: June 8, 2002; June 27, 2000

Which one in this fun quartet of royal hats stood out to you?

Photos from Getty as indicated; Splash News and Splash News via Corbis

Queen Sonja Opens Music Festival

Posted on by

Yesterday morning, Queen Sonja officially opened the annual two-week Bergen Festival of music and theatre. For the opening ceremony, which included several performances from the festival program, she wore a magenta coat and matching pillbox hat. Bright pink can be exceptionally difficult to photograph and I hope it is a photo glitch causing the slight difference of colour between the hat and the coat. If not, I’m afraid I have to take a pass on this ensemble.

Queen Sonja, May 27, 2015 | Royal Hats

Queen Sonja, May 27, 2015 | Royal Hats

Queen Sonja, May 27, 2015 | Royal Hats

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: I believe this hat is new. The last time we saw this coat, it was paired with a different hat. 

I’m usually fairly forgiving on slightly variations of shade within an ensemble but in this case, I think a closer match was needed. What do you think, dear readers- is this match close enough for you?

Photo from Marit Hommedal / NTB scanpix via The Royal House of Norway; Brendan Donnelly/Demotix and Brendan Donnelly/Demotix via Corbis

Swedish Royals Visit Gotland

Posted on by

Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel visited the island of Gotland yesterday. For this visit, which included stops at a nature reserve, a refugee support program, military training ground, a furniture company and a meeting about youth entrepreneurship, Princess Victoria was chose a white trouser suit and coordinating fedora hat. The hat, in white straw, was simply trimmed with a navy and white striped band at the past of the crown. We don’t see Victoria in many fedora hats but this one was island chic at its best.

Crown Princess Victoria, May 27, 2015 in Borsalino | Royal Hats  Crown Princess Victoria, May 27, 2015 in Borsalino | Royal Hats Crown Princess Victoria, May 27, 2015 in Borsalino | Royal Hats Crown Princess Victoria, May 27, 2015 in Borsalino | Royal Hats

Designer: Borsalino.
Previously Worn: I believe this hat is new

Photos from David Sica via Expressen

Dutch Monarchs Kick Off Canadian Visit

Posted on by

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima arrived in Canada yesterday for a week long visit. For their official welcome in Ottawa today, Queen Máxima repeated a loosely structured navy picture hat. Made of light straw that appears to be sewn together in long strips, the hat is simply trimmed in a wide swath of rough edged navy straw that lies on top of the brim.

Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images

This hat is all about texture and easy movement- the very two things that put it at complete odds with Máxima’s very structured lace covered dress and lace coat. While I love the idea of the magenta, cream and navy colour scheme of this ensemble, it completely fails due to texture overload.

Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images

 

Designer: Fabienne Delvigne
Previously Worn: June 12, 2013; October 31, 2011

In all honesty, I can’t think of any hat that would work with this dress and coat combination. Can you?

Photos from Getty as indicated 

British Royals Attend State Opening Of Parliament

Posted on by

Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Princess Royal attended the State Opening of Parliament at the House of Westminster today. As she does each year, the Queen arrived wearing the incredible diamond and pearl George IV Diadem (read more about it over at The Order of Sartorial Splendor or The Court Jeweller and peruse great photos over at The Royal Collection). I adore the patriotic floral bouquets between the crosses (thistle for Scotland, rose for England and shamrock for Ireland) which add both feminine and nationalistic notes to this piece. With her lace gown, fur stole and jaw dropping diamond jewels, the Queen looked most regal.

For the ceremony, the Queen wore the greatest piece of royal headgear in existence today, the Imperial State Crown.

You can see more detailed photos of this famous piece here at the Royal Collection and I encourage you to watch the short documentary on it below, presented by the Queen herself.

The Duchess of Cornwall wore the Greville tiara (see an excellent history of this tiara here). The honeycomb design of this piece suits Camilla very well and its pairing with her magnificent white embroidered gown was absolutely stunning.

Princess Anne wore her uniform as Colonel of the Blues and Royals. While it sadly, was not a gown or tiara, it is a uniform that Anne wears so very well.

It was a rather glittering day in London for the British Royals today. Any day where royal tiaras see the light of day is a good day, don’t you agree?!

Photos from Getty as indicated