The Dutch royal family was in Tilburg today to celebrate King Willem Alexander’s 50th birthday.
For Koningsdag festivitied this year, Queen Máxima topped her navy and orange ensemble with a coordinating calot hat. It looks to me that the hat is made of the same smocked silk crepe and georgette organza as Máxima’s navy and orange striped dress- if you look closely, you can see the tiny gathers of smocking.
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According to the designer, the dress is embroidered with narrow stripes of metal and crystal embroidery (visible on the stripes of the sleeves below) and I think this embroidery has also been repeated on the hat in between rows of swirled smocking, creating the gold pinstripe edging. These design details- smocking and beaded embroidery- are not ones we see on the average royal hat but coordinate beautifully with this dress and ombre chenille cape. The cape makes quite a style statement on its own and I think it was a good call not only to make the coordinating hat a small one (more of a headpiece) but to leave the orange stripes off of it. In the end, it’s still a lot of look but I think the balance is just right.
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Embed from Getty Images
Previously Worn: This hat is new
Princess Alexia and Princess Arianne also got in on the fun in black and orange mortar board hats.
Koningsdag is always a day of lighthearted celebration. What did you think of Queen Máxima’s new hat today?
Royal Hats 
Love this outfit, but I’m not sold on the hat. I like the cape better than the dress (looks very wintry). The hat seems kind of messy.
I think this is a very successfully designed outfit as a whole entity (and as we know, that isn’t always a given). I really like all the different elements, and the fact that the limited colours and the repeated design elements like the smocking tie everything together. The hat goes very well in this context. which is the most important thing.
Love her hat! Her purse is great, small and with a handle. Divine shoes. I give the dress and cape a positive vote…..wins foe me.
I love the Queens outfit and the hat is exquisite. I love that her beautifully-becoming daughters’ outfits are color-coordinated with their mothers clothes. Nice.
Can anyone enlighten on the graduation hats the younger two princesses and children behind them are wearing in a couple pictures? I thought mortar board hats were exclusively for academic graduations.
The hat is ok but it sits too far back. I would like to see it a bit higher up as it was warn in the 50s. Dress is interesting and I would like the cape if it was all in navy. Can´t stand the orange.
isn’t it weird that when Maxima wears a small hat most people don’t like it? and when she goes big , it is too big. must be difficult to be a Queen and not be able to please everybody. Of course I have my opinion as well, I like the hat, but that’s all.
“Most people don’t like it” ???? Of 20 comments here, only two say they don’t like this hat!
I love everything about this . . . except for the hat. I know it’s sacrilege to say this, but if I had to choose between this hat or no hat for this look, I would choose no hat. In my opinion, the hat distracts from Máxima’s beautifully done hair. I also think a plain navy calot (of if I had the choice, her navy pillbox or her orange 2005 Prinsjesdag picture hat) would’ve been a better choice than trying to match it to the dress details. Blue and orange is one of my favorite color combos, so of course the use of these two colors in very different ways with the dress and the coat/cape. Overall a most beautiful ensemble I would love to see again, but with a different hat. And it was great to see the whole family looking like they were having a lot of fun!
Argh, meant to say “so of course I love the use of these two colors . . .” (should not comment after midnight haha).
It’s a lotta look, the kind of thing only Max could pull off! Using the sleeve detail in the hat is very clever, and the small scale works well with the rest of the ensemble. If I only I hadn’t seen all those brain hats last weekend…But with so much going on, I think an allover navy instead of the ombre would be better for the cape.
I join everyone else in thinking that this is an absolutely magnificent outfit. The dress and cape are fabulous, and the calot, not overpowering, is just the perfect complement. Thumbs up with my arms waving in the air!
Funny…. I didn’t expect so many of you to like the cape. I think it’s awful!
It IS awful. Ombre is great but NOT orange and navy. That combo is hideous. The material looks like my grandmother’s bathrobe. I get that Max wants to wear orange but this is so so so not good.
If you look at pictures without the cape is the hat looks amazing with the dress.
Thank you for the details of her dress Hatqueen. I think it’s one of the top five of Maxima’s outfits ever! Absolutely fabulous from top to toe!
It’s one of those times when the details of the dress are really important to put the hat in context!
Actually, I agree! It is so Maxima and I love its vitality and color! Ensembles many women couldn’t or wouldn’t carry off look splendid on HM! She is a marvelously unique woman and her clothing expresses that! 😻
This is a fabulous look! Only Máx would go there but she pulls it off. It’s a really unexpected colour combo and set of patterns but it all links together so well. I love this!
The whole look is stunning!
I love the look, but I am not a fan of the hat. She looked fabulous.
I wonder what the blue ribbons on the girls’ wrists signify? On the whole the Queen looks wonderful. I do like her outfit, and the hat looks good.
Queen Maxima and the adult princesses were given bouquets, the young princesses were given wrist corsages tied with a blue ribbon.
I looooooooove this!
That dress and cape are to die for. Just gorgeous and Max looks fabulous. The hat works well too, I agree that small is good and that it’s better without orange. I only wish it was higher up, more on the top of her head. These headpieces worn low across the back always make me think they’re falling off.
It is a good choice to complete the beautiful dress and cape.
Absolute perfection. Once again Queen Maxima pays homage to the House of Orange, but in a slightly more subtle way. The hat is exquisite.
Koninginnedag was in Tilburg. Tilberg don’t exist. I love Maxima s hat.
Since 2014 it’s called KONINGSDAG !
I quite like this cap!