to this day, 13 years ago, when the Danish royal family gathered at City Hall for a pre-wedding reception for Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Mary. Not quite hitting the streamlined and elegant millinery stride we’ve come to expect from Mary these days, she wore a an oversized variation of a cloche hat in olive green straw with an oddly indented and domed crown, trimmed with a slim ribbon that tied in a rather droopy side bow. The scale of this hat overwhelmed her and the exaggerated shape… well, I think it’s best left in the past.
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Photo from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
OMG. Thank heavens Mary didn’t keep travelling alosng this trajectory. And it’s not just the hat, it’s the complete outfit – head to toe.
UGH…from head to toe. And at her pre-wedding reception!
Reminds me of the Mad Hatter’s hat in Alice in Wonderland.
Best left way in the past.
Everyone is entitled to a learning curve. I’m sure Mary and others who followed in her footsteps can appreciate a hat that just didn’t seems to work when considered later in hindsight.
One more vote for retirement. The only good thing about this one is that it might offer a place to hide if one is a press-shy almost-Crown Princess.
I think the brim is a good shape for Mary, but that crazy crown and sad trim must never return!
Very little can be said in favor of this hat, which, probably worst of all from the royal point of view, completely casts the crown princess’s face into shadow. It is a very unsatisfactory color and size–from the side it makes the princess’s head look enormous. However, it does argue a willingness to experiment, and certainly did nothing to diminish the princess’s charm.
You known the old cliche about the party guest who has imbibed too much wearing a lampshade……….well, this could be its origin. Not that I mean Mary has had too much to drink, just that the hat resembles a lampshade.
It reminds me of a waste paper basket! Too big for such a lovely face.
What a beautiful smile!
Oh that one is horrible! It is entirely too big for her, and it ls like a cartoon hat. I can see why it’s not still being worn and it does look like an Angela Kelly hat. I much prefer the wonderful hats she wears now.
We may well forget the hat indeed, but it is amazing how Mary hasn’t changed at all.
Was this made for her by Angela Kelly? Or did it inspire Angela Kelly to make, and unfortunately keep making, these hats with strange crowns for QEII.