When Prince Christian of Denmark was christened ten years ago, the event was attended by numerous royal relatives and close friends. After looking at the hats worn by his mother, grandparents and godparents, we now turn our attention to those worn by royal guests.
Queen Margrethe’s sisters, Queen Anne-Marie and Princess Benedikte, both wore vibrant hats. In bright red felt, Queen Anne-Marie’s hat featured an unusually tall crown, a short, upturned brim; the piece was boldly embellished with a large knotted bow and curling black feather spines. Princess Benedikte topped her grey fur coat with a large beret-style design in raspberry felt. We have seen Princess Benedikte in numerous hats in this hue and the colour is fantastic on her.
Princess Marie-Chantal wore a Philip Treacy designed fascinator of straw twists and several different varieties of gold feathers. While some might argue that the spiky design gave some textural contrast to her tweed coat and dress, I have always found the combination of classic clothing and modern headpiece to be jarring and disharmonious.
Princess Alexia of Greece topped her grey fur jacket with a burgundy felt hat. With an indented crown and fluted, upturned brim, this hat is all about shape. I adore the grey and burgundy colour scheme of her ensemble but I’m afraid the stylised brim and crown shapes on her hat look rather dated today. Tatiana Blatnik (who would become Princess Tatiana of Greece and Denmark in 2010) wore a simple fascinator of navy feathers. The lightness of the piece, which feels better suited to a summer wedding or garden party, feels off balance against her winter coat
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Princess Theodora wore an interesting loden green beret variation with high peaked side trimmed with a felt rose in the same colour. Princess Benedikte’s daughter, Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg topped her gold bouclé coat with a purple fascinator. The headpiece, consisting of a purple silk rose and feathers that swept around the top of her head, provided a spot of colour and textural contrast to her ensemble.
The Countess of Frederiksborg, who arrived with her young sons Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix, wore in an ecru felt hat with asymmetrical upfolded brim. The hat was trimmed in a pleated sash of the same fabric as her coat, drawing the two pieces together in a unified winter white ensemble. Some of you might recognize the hat as the same one worn for Prince Felix’s christening (the last christening to have taken place in the Danish royal family at the time) in 2002- an interesting choice but a hat that Alexandra wore very well.
Princess Mathilde (as was her title in 2006) topped her beautiful red coat dress and cape with a large matching hat. With a squared crown and upfolded brim, the hat was simply trimmed with a wide ribbon around the base of the crown. It’s a strong look for Mathilde but she carried it well. It’s a classic piece that I would love to see trotted out again.
Dutch Princess Laurentien also wore an exaggerated hat- made of the same brown plaid as her tailored jacket, the piece featured a tall, indented crown and oval shaped brim. Unfortunately, the stylised fedora overwhelmed Laurentien and looked to be swallowing her up.
Princess Märtha Louise of Norway wore a 1940s inspired hat by Anja Irgens. With a close fitting crown and diamond brooch detail, the star of this hat was its upfolded brim that swept around the hat in fluted waves. Märtha Louise has long been known for her quirky style and while this hat fits that style brief, the colour and shape are exquisite. Ten years later, it is still one of my favourite hats in her wardrobe.
Royal Hats 
Princess Märtha Louise of Norway’s hat is the best of this bunch. It suits her well, it’s an interesting shape, a great color, and I love the brooch on it too. I wish more Royal ladies would put brooches on their hats the way the Queen Mother used to often do. This retro look could be worn today without any problems, as this is a hat that will never date. I would award second prize to Princess Mathilde, with her red coat dress and cape with a large matching hat. She can carry a lot of red. The hat is simple and elegant and could easily be brought back again. My third prize is awarded to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. It’s a simple, classic design and could be worn today easily. My fourth prize goes to Princess Theodora, with her green beret variation with its unexpected high peaked side trimmed with a felt rose, but I wish that she had gone for a neater hairdo. My fifth prize goes to Princess Benedikte’s large beret-style design in raspberry felt, as it’s a simple style that can easily be brought back any time, and it’s a great color. I am not crazy about the remainder of the hats. While I am usually a fedora fan, Princess Laurentien’s was too big. I am not a fascinator fan, and none of these fascinators managed to change my mind. I also don’t tend to like tall crowns, and so Queen Anne-Marie’s hat didn’t impress me, though the color was excellent. Princess Alexia of Greece’s burgundy felt hat seemed an odd shape, and it just didn’t suit her.
I want to comment on each hat like I have seen many others do. I also am going to start my own rating system which I am sure will evolve over time. For starters this is how it will work: 3 hearts-adore hat and outfit combination
2 hearts-good hat, but not with this outfit
1 heart- OK hat, but not my cup of tea
0 heart-ack!
Here goes! Queen Anne Marie and Princess Benedint’s-3 ❤
P Marie Chantal-0 ❤ (Not a fan of fascinators plus what is that curtain likething hanging down from her jacket?
P Alexis-1 ❤ (Too big, nice color)
Tatiana Blaknik-0 ❤ (ditto comment about fascinator but look at that choker. Wowsa!)
P Theodora-1 ❤
P Laurentian-0 ❤ (too much plaid)
P Mathilde-3 ❤
P Martha Louise- 2<3 (I like the shape and love the brooch on the hat, but color did not seem to match outfit and those shoes looked burgundy-ack! With purple??)
P Alexandra-1 ❤ (A fascinator I actually liked because of how it swept over the head)
Countess of Fredericksborg-3 ❤
I like Martha Louise’s hat, Benedikte’s as well. In fact several ladies look very nice. I’m afraid those fascinatots aren’t in that group. They almost always look like something is exploding oit of the wearer’s head, but the combination of light airy fascinator with winter clothes is worse than unfortunate. Poor Marie Chantal looks like a fashion victim and I hate that because she’s one of my favorites and I think I’d like her suit if I could figure out what that fringy thing is.
HatQueen, Princess->Queen Mathilde’s lovely hat combined with the red hat which made our top 10 for 2015 makes me wonder if you could do an inventory of her red hats sometime. She looks lovely in this color, so I hope these aren’t the only two!
Mathilde looks divine! That gorgeous hat, that cape, the fur accents. Wonderful!
I like Princess Martha Louise’s hat best, and Princess Mathilde’s second best. Queen Anne-Marie’s hat is interesting and I might like it better if seen from other angles. I almost like Princess Alexia’s hat but it’s just … a little off. Princess Laurentien’s and the Countess of Fredriksborg’s hats are also on the cusp of ok. I’m so over fascinators!
Princess Mathilde’s outfit looks red on my mobile phone and raspberry on my laptop. Hmm. Either way, it looks delicious. I am not a huge fan of over the top embellishment and her look here is why. Classic chic.
I am also not a huge fan of fascinators, maybe because I have gotten tired of them. At this point, many are barely better than the ribbons tied on some heads or in the hair. I am so grateful the British royal family at least is staying loyal to brimmed hats.
I am surprised to say I actually like Princess Marie-Chantal’s Philip Treacy fascinator with her tweed coat dress. I was prepared not to like it at all and agree with you HatQueen, “I have always found the combination of classic clothing and modern headpiece to be jarring and disharmonious.” Not quite sure why I am not offended by this outfit.
My favorite of them all however is Princess Märtha Louise’s hat with the “fluted waves”. And that color – it is divine.
That hat is one of the many reasons I am so happy to have found this website. I would never have seen this hat. It may be one of my all time favorite hats ever. I adore it.
Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this site and delivering us with so many opportunities to be delighted and amazed.
On my computer screen, Mathilde’s outfit looks raspberry on the left pic and more bright red (crimson?) on the right one. Weird.
Anne-Marie looks wonderful in crimson, but I still think the crown of this hat is too high for her. Benedikte looks divine; I love a grey outfit with accessories that have pops of color, and this beret, while extremely simple, does the trick!
I loved the outfit and fascinator for Marie-Chantal, but somehow it went wrong. The placement on her head is too far back, and her hair is quite messy unfortunately; with her very basic makeup, it’s all too monochromatic for me, and a miss.
Alexia’s hat just looks bulky and over-exaggerated, which is unfortunate because this could totally work if the whole design was toned down somehow. I think Tatiana looked smashing here, and the color keeps it from being too summery in my opinion.
As for Alexandra and Laurentien, I disagree and say Laurentien’s hat was the better of the two (but that’s not saying much). While her fedora is oversized, it seems to be designed that way and not a size issue so much (although I’m still not a huge fan). Alexandra’s would’ve been excellent if it actually fit, but it’s obviously way too small, and she loses major points for that.
Mathilde looks wonderful and glad she brought some color to the party. Hope she brings this out of a hatbox soon!
Märtha Louise was the best-dressed guest at this christening! So, so chic, and this hat suits her so well; especially love how she styled her hair with it. Brava!
The two Alexandras looked quite nice in their ensembles, but it’s a bit too much beige for my taste. I will say the Countess of Frederiksborg’s hat looks better with the white band as opposed to the original blue of Felix’s christening.
well said Jake
I agree with what Jake says: January 22, 2016 at 8:43 am.
Martha Louise’s hat is lovely. The Countess of Frederiksborg’s hat is also a classic shape very well executed, as is Mathilde’s large raspberry coloured hat. All three very successful hats that could be worn to advantage now. I also like Anne-Marie’s hat, which plays to my appreciation of the unusual and somewhat quirky in hats. Both it and Benedicte’s, as well as Mathilde’s, are gorgeous shades of red.
(Then) Princess Mathilde. Fabulous!
Mathilde hat has stand the test of time, fascinators placement is a bit off with some,
Princess Martha Louise….please wear that fabulous blue hat again!! Here, her suit, earrings and shoes were all wrong for the hat (I’d like to see the hat worn with a 40’s style suit and/or a plain gabardine coat, with the hat sans the diamond brooch, and perhaps a shoe with an ankle strap), for starters. And Queen Matilde? She can do no wrong….she has a great sense of style!!