On Thursday, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde continued their state visit to Japan with a day of engagements that took the pair to Tokugawa Museum, a Nagoya exhibition of Belgian products, Matsuzakaya Department Store and an elementary school. Queen Mathilde used these events to debut a new cocktail hat, described by the designer as “made out of abaca and red silk, adorned with an accompanying feather.”
The silk covered straw takes on a wonderful iridescent sheen in natural light. While the wrapped design of the hat makes it slightly unkempt for my taste, the combination of hat with red gloves, clutch and shoes, embroidered rose detail on Mathilde’s grey dress, a fantastic hairstyle and classic jewels makes for a truly lovely ensemble.
Designer: Fabienne Delvigne. Dress by by Esmeralda Ammoun
Previously Worn: This hat is new
The couple’s final day yesterday took them to Osaka where they visited Kobe University, lunched with leaders from the local chemical industry and viewed traditional Japanese theatre. Queen Mathilde repeated a beige velvet felt fedora variation with relaxed brim, high crown and multi-looped bow. It is a more informal piece but one I think was a chic match with her orange dress.
Royal Hats 
The red hat is great! So Mathilde, and the rest of the outfit is perfect. I don’t care for the beige fedora, for some reason it looks like it either doesn’t fit right or is weirdly proportioned.
I don´t like the beige fedora with the orange dress. It is too meh… The hat feels too heavy for the dress. A coctailhat in any other color would have looked lovely
The red hat is fine and I absolutely adore the gray dress.
although the red hat is described with lots of details, it doesn’t look sophisticated , don’t like it, looks funny. the other hat not a success either
Beautiful…all week.
I agree with the many who find this hat perched too far forward. It’s very pretty, though, and I hope it gets another outing. The red works very well with the gray.
I love the whole look of Queen Mathilde’s red outfit but I don’t care for the placement of the hat, it sits too far forward. As to the orange dress and hat it is not a favorite. I am not a fan of a fedora in general and to me if one is worn it seems it should be worn with a very causal outfit like jeans. But overall Queen Mathilde is an elegant lady!
The red cocktail hat does look a little bit unkempt. But it seems that depends on the angle. I do like how it looks in the last 2 pictures. I think that’s also because there you can actually see the feather and the other details.
The beige hat is nice too. I love how she always keeps using different styles so it never gets predictable.
I agree with Jake that the spectacular red cocktail hat looks to me a little too far forward on Queen Mathilde’s forehead. The grey dress goes beautifully with the hat.
The beige fedora and orange dress while lovely, do not reach the heights of the other outfit.
I do like the red hat from a distance, it goes beautifully with her dress. Ordinarily I would be all for the forward placement too; the only thing is that in every single photo except the last one, she is looking down, and then it makes it look as though the hat is a bit too heavy and is dragging her head forward! It might be better for engagements where she has to stand up straight!
I don’t like the beige hat. I’m not keen on fedoras for formal events anyway, and this one just looks too high-crowned and odd.
I love the red hat with her red accessories-simply gorgeous!
The red hat is such a winner! The whole outfit was superb so well done that Queen. The beige fedora … meh. It seems a bit big and a bit beige to be paired with such a vibrant dress (and a bit heavy to be worn with a dress in a light fabric). It also appears to be sitting a bit high.
The new red hat looks good with Queen Mathilde’s whole outfit and her swirly hairdo. I prefer the fedora worn with a coat, as it seems more suited to wearing outdoors, rather than to lunch and the theatre. I would have preferred another of Delvigne’s small creations with this orange dress. Or she could have switched the days for the outfits, with the more casual outfit fine for the museum, department store and elementary school, and the red and gray perfect for the lunch/theatre day.
While the red cocktail hat may indeed be “slightly unkempt,” it goes perfectly with the red in the dress — not just the color but the design and shape are spot on. Excellent outfit!
The beige fedora is all right. The bow doesn’t photograph so well today as it did at its initial wearing, but Queen Matilde indeed has looked spectacular throughout the visit to Japan.
I loved the red hat, and the placement. She looked very chic, and I liked everything about the outfit. While I do love a fedora, it was just too nondescript and unmemorable after the wonderful red hat. I like the way she wears her hair differently with different hats. She makes it look effortless, and it isn’t.
I’m such a sucker for cocktail percher hats (was just raving today over some of the new ones we just got in at work), and this is a fantastic one! The color is beautiful, and the whole ensemble is coordinated so well between the reds and greys. My only minor complaint is I wish the feather and pleated loops swept more towards the back, because in some photos this hat looks kinda front-heavy.
Her fedora hat is nice and the color pairing is good, but I don’t find this one nearly as exciting.
Love the new red cocktail hat and what a wonderful placement of it – just perfect. She looks wonderful from top to toe. The use of the red accents in her accessories to pick up the roses colour is super and makes Queen Mathilde look interesting as well as lovely.