While the races for favourite repeated hat and hats worn by royal men are great fun, the poll many of you have been awaiting is the one for favourite new royal hat of the year. 2016 brought numerous new millinery designs that thrilled us royal hat watchers and throughout the past year, we have narrowed down our favourites to seventeen designs from fifteen different milliners. Now, we turn our attention toward choosing a single winner.
As in all other polls here at Royal Hats, click on any of the photos below to jump back to original posts with additional pictures and information on each hat. Here are the seventeen finalists, again all picked by you, dearest readers, for Best New Royal Hat of 2016:
2.
Empress Michiko’s white saucer hat with pale teal silk roses and leaves worn January 27
Queen Elizabeth on February 8 in a square, red Angela Kelly design with black curls
3.
4.
Zara Tindall in a navy felt percher beret covered in feathers by Rosie Olivia worn on March 16
Zara Tindall’s oyster grey straw teardrop percher with feather trim ’round the back by Rosie Olivia worn April 9
6.Crown Princess Mary on May 27 in Susanne Juul’s black straw picture hat with waved brim
Countess of Wessex in a pale blue Jane Taylor percher hat with organza bell flowers worn June 10
7.
8.
Duchess of Cambridge’s Philip Treacy white slice brimmed hat with pink rose on June 11
Princess Eugenie on June 11 in Vivien Sheriff’s ecru raised saucer hat with feathers
9.
10.
Zara Tindall’s electric blue percher with yellow quills by Rosie Olivia worn on Day 1
Princess Eugenie’s pale pink lattice picture hat with feathers by Jess Collett worn on Day 3
11.
12.
Princess Beatrice’s navy saucer disc hat with silk orchids by Gina Foster worn on Day 5
Princess Eugenie on Day 5 in a black mushroom picture hat with pearls by Nerida Fraiman
13.
Princess Anne in a pale aqua saucer hat with leaf applique straw leaf detail worn July 1
14.
15.
Lady Brabourne’s grey and silver hat with upswept brim by Dillon Wallwork worn June 25
Duchess of Cambridge’s royal blue percher with leaf trim by Silvia Fletcher for Lock & Co. on Sep 24
16.
17.
Queen Silvia’s greige felt hat with black striped underbrim worn Oct 5
Princess Charlene on Nov 19 in Rachel Trevor Morgan’s black and white straw pyramid hat with roses
Voting will remain open until Tuesday, January 31 at midnight GMT and each computer or mobile device can vote twice per day for as many hats as you wish. To keep the poll completely fair, results will remain hidden until the poll closes and I urge you to refer back to the original posts for a closer look at each hat’s detail to help you make your choice(s).
Photos from Jay Directo, Max Mumby/Indigo, Max Mumby/Indigo, Max Mumby/Indigo, Andreas Rentz, Danny Martindale, Samir Hussein, Mark Cuthbert, Chris Jackson, Kirstin Sinclair, Max Mumby/Indigo and Mark Cuthbert via Getty; Rachel Adams via Rex Features; CBC; VOCM; Karwai Tang, Sean Gallup, and Theirry Orban via Getty
Hi HQ, not wishing to add to your obvious frustrations … Princess Anne’s hat is numbered 14 in the photos, as is Lady Brabourne’s. On the vote list Anne’s hat is 13. I’m pointing this out because I’m (slightly) concerned the poll may be skewed by people inadvertently voting for number 14, when they meant number 13!
Signed,
All Power to Any New Hat that Anne Wears (inc)
PS: We, here, at APANHAW, love your work. Breath, my dear, and have a nice cup of tea. Works wonders.
Thanks Sandra, for noticing that error- correction made.
I love all these hats. I voted for the one I would most like to own and wear myself!
I have to say that this — what — four days after voting began that I am finding it harder to vote for a favourite. My decision on one is for my own reasons and I can’t wait to see who comes out on top!
Dear Hat Queen
I can only admire your patience and persistence in maintaining this site and the enormous effort you go to simply so the rest of us can sit back and enjoy it all
I thoroughly disagree with the notion that we are all too busy to fully read emails or posts. If you haven’t understood the communication, go back and read it again. It’s called being polite.
All the best and I hope you continue to post.
What a wonderful selection this process has produced. All of the hats here are worthy contenders, I’d say. And how do we choose which one to vote for? Just for the “best hat” in the abstract? Or for the “best royal hat” taking into account the wearer, the event and the way the hat goes with the overall outfit and look? Oh, dilemmas, dilemmas!
I also think the selection process has been excellent. Each one of these hats can genuinely be considered top shelf.
I think best has to take into account how the hat looks on the wearer, how the hat goes with the outfit and how the hat looks on its own. I don’t think the event matters. I also don’t think you can fairly vote without going back to look a full size picture of each hat with the outfit. Maybe next time it would be good to have the closeup photo and a full size photo to show this.
It’s not really fair that Zara is here 3 times but others have only one hat here and the lady in #14 isn’t even a princess.
These hats were all chosen in run off polls. Each one had to win a heat to get here and some royals had more than one excellent hat last year. so they won different heats. Zara fairly won three heats.
#14 is Lady Brabourne who is Earl of Mountbatten’s grand-daughter-in-law. He was one of Queen Victoria’s many grandchildren and Prince Philip’s uncle. She’s not a princess but she and her family are 100% royal.
I absolutely love Princess Mary’s navy hat with the wavy brim, but is it a new designer for her? Maybe its just the wavy brim, but I think she might have this hat in denim blue, pale pink, and maybe other colors as well. I would too, I like it that much.
If this was covered in aprevious post, just direct me there, and I will look it up.
Susanne Juul has made most of Crown Princess Mary’s hat for the past decade. And yes- she has similar hats in this style. If you check out the “Hat Twins” page, you’ll see an index of such posts. The one you want is this one.
So glad to see this burst of fabulous on a day when I need distraction! I went with Charlene’s on my first vote, but I’ll be back for more.
A question for you, dear HatQueen: does Zara Tindall ever repeat her hats? She seems to have an endless supply of new ones.
I love seeing our top royals, but it’s especially wonderful to see so many of the slightly less common royals (Here’s kudos to you Mrs. Tindall and Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice) as well as some even rarer ones- count me as one who adored Lady Brabourne’s look. There are so many fabulous fabulous choices here- Obviously since they were all monthly favorites, but I don’t think there’s a single one that doesn’t make me squee with glee.
My oh my. Such an exquisite selection. I have narrowed mine down to five. How I am going to choose one I don’t know. I may put the numbers in a bag and draw. It is a delicious dilemma. These hats certainly fill the eye. Thank you for giving us so much fun.
You can certainly vote for more than one!
Ooh, good to know. I was in a similar quandary to Hatingdon. In the end I narrowed it to six.
You guys- EVERY poll has allowed for multiple votes, since the very beginning of the blog.
Do any of you actually read the posts?
I read every word! People really should know by now that they can vote for more than one hat.
This is THE BEST poll. I really like having the monthly polls to choose the semifinalists. It makes choosing the best hats every year so much fun. It’s also very good you have a few polls in June when all the best hats come out to play!
Thanks! At least there is one. I’m a little frustrated- in the past 24 hours, I’ve received more than 30 emails from people complaining they can’t choose just one winner in these polls (then vote for more than one!!), 11 emails from people wondering why Melania Trump didn’t wear a hat to yesterday’s inauguration (how should I know?!), 4 emails telling me that I should cover any hat Mrs. Trump wears in the future (nope, unless it’s at an event with other hat wearing royals), 4 emails requesting additional hats [that didn’t even make it to monthly polls] be included in these final polls (not a chance), an email asking how I’m related to the Duke of Kent (???) and a few more that you wouldn’t believe even if I told you. It’s all left me wondering why I bother.
Dear Hat queen, I find that, perhaps in our frenetic society, that many people do nor read emails or posts in their entirety. I include myself in this. It took me awhile to cotton onto the fact that I could vote for several hats if I had a hard time choosing a favorite.
As for Mrs. Trump, she is not a member of a royal family, or related to one. The title of your blog is “Royal Hats”. The USA is a republic!
Thank you for your patience with us. We will endeavor to fall in line. Your efforts give me a pleasant diversion from the stresses of everyday life.
Thanks, Liz.
Please don’t be discouraged! Your readers are truly appreciative of all your hard work, even if not quite so attentive to every word as we might be. This is a lovely place to come to look at the choices of some of the world’s most dedicated hat-wearers, and we do thank you for it.