Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh continued their state visit to Germany today with welcomes at Bellevue Palace and German Chancellery, a visit to the Technical University of Berlin and a jaunt down the Spree River. For these events, Queen Elizabeth repeated the same white ruffled coat that she wore for her Diamond Jubilee River Pageant but paired it with a new white straw hat.
Queen Elizabeth has several other hats in a similar shape (see here, here and here) that I think work better than this one does. While I can overlook the bulbous crown and clunky brim on this design, I can’t get past the awkwardly twee bow. The all white ensemble does allow Her Majesty’s brooch to take centre stage but the hat, with its wide surfaces of plain white straw, falls completely flat for me. I think the ruched fabric hat she wore for the Diamond Jubilee was a better match for this coat. What do you think of this new hat?
Designer: Angela Kelly
Previously Worn: This is a new hat
Photo from Getty as indicated and Reynaldo Paganelli/NurPhoto via Corbis
Royal Hats 
Oh dear. I love that coat, but the hat is a big no. Giant bows on an octogenarian monarch? It looks so infantile.
I like it a lot – Queen is on a run of new hats just now! I did prefer the Jubilee pageant hat as she had Never worn anything like that before and it made an interesting departure for her.
Bless her heart, she looks like she is wearing a wedding cake from head to toe.
I’m not in the majority here, but I like this hat! Lovely and simple. I even find the bow cute, and yes, even for the Queen.
Very reminiscent of the hats beefeaters wear…..or am I confused?
I might be about the similarity, but am not NOT confused by how I feel about her Majesty’s hat.
That hat is truly hideous.
HQ, you mentioned 3 other similar hats. Isn’t the following the same hat block too? This picture makes it look as though the bump in the crown is there too even though it didn’t show in most of the straight-on photos.
The brim is certainly the same but I think the Jubilee hat crown is one piece as opposed to the two-pieced crown today.
I adore this coat on her! It’s a shame she hasn’t been able to settle on a good hat for it. The jubilee hat looked like a kooky craft project (make a UFO out of an old bedsheet!) gone wrong, this one looks juvenile, neither were elegant.
The bow makes me think of a circus clown’s bow tie. Maybe the queen can squirt water out of it? Other than that I love her in white – so beautiful with her hair and skin – the Lioness in Winter 🙂
Oh, this just gets better. Not only can the Queen make this hat inflate, but now she can make the bow squirt water. Send that specimen to the circus. This is one amazing hat! Angela Kelly has outdone herself! We’ve wasted our time critiquing the hat’s artistic merits. We should have have focused on its technological advances.
(Seriously, have these possibilities/capabilties ever been mentioned for a royal hat before? This one really must be special.)
Perhaps Natan and Angela Kelly are twins separated at birth?! 😉
I, also, am not a fan of the ensemble – the coat makes HM look bigger in the bust than she is. I do like the colour, though, as it makes her stand out and the brooch looks interesting. As for the hat………..the bow just looks like an afterthought, plumped front and centre. She looked so lovely in the blues outfit on arrival, though.
I don’t like this coat design, don’t like the material and don’t like the hat. Gosh. But I do love the brooch and the Queen in ‘winter white’. The bow gives the hat an infantile look (someone said Mad Hatter and that’s right too). Oh, Angela, was last week only a blip? Still, perhaps the Queen likes the coat and wanted to wear it again. Who says ‘no’ to ER (apart from Phillip, of course)?
I so agree with you, this coat is not good on HM at all, this ruffle seems crooked in the front, does not lay flat and makes her look silly, MHO, as for the hat, no. Get rid of that tiny bow in the front, not very becoming. The fabric of the coat seem like it is on the heavy side, this is summer not winter. The color is perfect with her hair, complexion, eyes, and that wonderful smile of her’s never fails to make me smile. Over all, the outfit is a disaster on her.
I didn’t like the outfit before, both the previous hat and the coat suffer from the Kelly heavy hand when trimming. And I’m not sure on this hat either – like most others. It’s just a funny shape and in stark white it’s emphasised. Hmm.
Last week was so good, I don’t understand what’s happened this week!
I can’t say I like it. It’s such a weird shape and the bow isn’t helping either.
I was never a fan of the coat, but the worst part of this ensemble is that awful Fergiemania-style bow on the hat! I think some small, off-center gold and/or silver feather trim would’ve been much more successful; I do like the shape and color of this hat however. The brooch is simply gorgeous!
I forgot to say, for the much more relaxed (fashion-wise) Germans, Daniela Schadt looks wonderful in her tomato-red outfit and coordinating hat.
Jake, I too tend to think of Fergie whenever I see big bows!
To be fair, everyone wore them in the 1980s.
HM looks adoringly happy in these pictures. But the hat record is 0 – 2 for this visit.
My goodness she is looking chipper in some of these photos! She looks like she’s feeling like a little girl in one! I like her in gold and white – just not a huge fan of the shape of her hat but it gets a pass from me.
I like the color and turned up brim, but the crown doesn’t do it for me. Regardless, she looks great, as always. She is a lovely woman, and so much a part of my life since childhood, that whenever I hear the word queen, I think of Queen Elizabeth. For me, she is the Queen, and there will never be another like her.
I’m with you jamiemid.
This hat looks like it has been inflated with air. I like the original one better.
Good description! Perhaps the hat pin can be removed and an air pump inserted. This could be an interesting effect, more bulbous hat in some pictures, less in others; perhaps the hat inflates and deflates at different altitudes. I can just imagine Angela Merkel staring at the Queen and watching the Queen’s hat gets bigger, taller and rounder as she makes an important point.
You made me laugh Snug Harbor and you are spot on!
I love that HM wears enough hats that here is bound to be a best and worst for each of us. I really didn’t like the hat she wore for the jubiliee. The feather stuff on the side was not pretty, IMO. I like the white hat she is wearing here – I’d prefer a gold ribbon instead of a bow. The star of the show is her beautiful multicolored gold rose brooch
Since I disliked the Jubilee hat, although I agree that it was more elegant looking and perhaps a better match for the coat, I guess I should like this hat better. Nonetheless, I agree that something more interesting than the bow fabric from the coat and dress fabric could have been found to tie the new combination together. While I’m not thrilled with the new hat, I certainly don’t object it to it, although I think it a little odd that it was created. Wish we could learn who came up with the idea for a new hat and what the reasons were.
I would also like to know why a new hat was created Snug Harbor. Maybe the original got damaged? Perhaps she didn’t want to look like she was doing the exact same look as for the historical moment of her Jubilee?
Damaged in the the rain during the Jubilee Flotilla maybe?
The Jubilee hat was much more attractive, flattering, and elegant than the new one is. The new one somehow reminds me of the Disney-verion Mad Hatter’s hat (meaning no disrespect to Her Majesty!).
Oh hum what do I say..I like the white, first glance I liked the brim in the first photo…overall it looks like the mad hatters hat with the bow..take the bow off. I sort of think it is ok mostly because I love the Queen in white.
I quite like this one — and HM looks smashing in white.