King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium are in the midst of an eight-day visit to China. Yesterday, the second day of the tour, the royal couple were in Wuhan Hubei Province yesterday where Queen Mathilde visited a kindergarten and the Hubei Art Museum. She used these engagements to début a new headpiece made of pleated grey straw. The sculptural piece, made up of a base of layers of fluted straw, was trimmed with with a ruched straw ribbon that followed the free-flowing movement of the hat.
From the front, the abstract piece frames Queen Mathilde’s face quite nicely; from the side, looks haphazard and messy. I suspect the intent of this piece was “modern wearable sculpture” but I am afraid it ends up reading more “folded napkin”.
Designer: Fabienne Delvigne
Previously Worn: This hat is new
The Belgian monarchs remain in China this week and I suspect we may see another hat or two before the tour concludes. What did you think of this new hat yesterday?
Photos from Sipa Asia/ZUMA Press, Sipa Asia/ZUMA Press, Sipa Asia/ZUMA Press, and Imaginechina/Splash News via Corbis
Royal Hats 
I like the headpiece from the front, but hate it from the back where it looks napkinesque. Why would you wear this with that dress? It doesn’t go together at all.
This reminds me of all the petticoats that used to be under the skirts of what year(?)………..maybe 1950, this is just ugly and worst of all it does not go with the dress……..whomever is helping is Not helping her look stylish. Such a beautiful lady and this……does not help.
I don’t like the headpiece itself either… so many pleats that it no longer has a proper shape…
and I don’t understand who thought it would be a good idea to wear it with this orange dress.
You can do better, Mathilde, we know it. 🙂
I feel there’s a good hat in here somewhere struggling to get out.
MrFitzroy Loves this comment! Thank you Bristol.
No. Just no.
My main issue is it doesn’t go with the dress.
From the front, this looks to me like several of the floofier bows my middle school friends and I wore in the late 80s, all pushed together in one big mass. Not a good look. It’s a little more interesting in a side view, but while crumpled napkin is interesting, it’s still not good.
That said, I really appreciate this queen’s willingness to try new and unusual hat shapes. They aren’t all hits –this one sure isn’t–but she keeps moving the fashions forward.
This headpiece looks too much like a napkin all crumpled up for my liking and I can’t see how it even goes with this dress.
I like the hat. For gray, it is a lovely shade and I can appreciate and find interesting that the structure is made of straw. I also give her and the designer high points for trying something different. My problem is that the hat does not go with the dress at all and hence the overall look is not good. As noted already, the swirls of the hat are a mismatch with the square lines in the dress. Also, assuming the background of the dress is gray, it’s not close enough to the gray of the hat to blend. Additionally, an unusual gray hat plus the full sleeves plus the print of the dress plus the orange gloves is just all too much. I can see the hat going quite nicely with a simple black or white summer dress.
Well put, agree entirely.
My favorite Queen can do no wrong. She is always perfect in every way!
Wow, “unexpected” is certainly a blade that can cut both ways. MrFitzroy would really like to like this, but unfortunately, it reads as somewhere between “postmodern French maid cap” and piled scraps from a Victorian crinoline shop. Still, one has to love both the moxie and the poise required to venture out in such a conceptual piece. Mathilde manages to make it look interesting and somewhat effortless, if not wonderful — and truly, she can never look bad no matter what she wears. One just hopes she didn’t confuse her hosts.
My first reaction was no, I don’t like it. But then I came to like the whole structure and the color. So in the end I don’t love it but it’s ok. We all know she can do better.
In the first picture the headpiece looks rather attractive, and that’s probably the view Queen Mathilde gets when looking in a mirror. When viewed from the side or from above, the crumpled napkin is all I see, though.
When I saw the first photo I quite liked the headpiece. The soft gray color was flattering to her blonde hair, and the shape framed her face nicely and worked well with her hairstlye. I liked the idea of the fluted straw. It’s always nice to see designers do things that are unpredictable with certain materials, like using straw in an unconventional way. To my dismay, the other photos revealed that the rest of this headpiece looked like a badly crumpled napkin. What a let-down!
It is rather extraordinary headwear; can it even be called a hat? I guess I give Queen Mathilde a pass on this one, since she is usually so well turned-out. And, the dress is pretty.
That’s exactly why I called it a headpiece!
Love Marhilde, love the dress, hate what passes for a hat. It does look like a napkin scrunched up and attached to her head. Such a wonderful,vibrant dress, and then, we see the hat. If M-M ever graduates to a hat, this is what she will wear. On her it wouldn’t be so awful because we know she hates hats, but on Mathilde, it’s really sad.
We know that Princess Mette-Marit hates hats? Where do we know that from?
And since Princess Mette-Marit has not worn designs by Fabienne Delvigne, I highly doubt we’ll see her in anything like this.
Not a fan.
She is so cute. The design in the hat are swirls and the pattern in the dress are squared lines…that throws it off. The dress is simple and elegant but the hat is more fun. Think that creates an unwanted contrast.
I still like it and the colours balance.
Thank you Hat Lady for the hours of work you put into all of the hat events last week. Completely enjoyed.
This headpiece just looks messy to me. Another hat/headpiece or no hat would be better than this in my opinion. I like the rest of her outfit though!
As much as I love and admire Queen Mathilde’s style, I am never fond of these random hats. If anyone could pull one off it would be Mathilde, but even she can’t make this look like a piece of napery thrown on her head!