Princess Eugenie kicked off Ascot this year in a modern take on a traditional French bergère hat with wide brim hat and very shallow crown. The hat is entirely covered in fabric with a black brim punctuated by a hot pink and white crown. At first thought, I wasn’t crazy about the proportions but after looking at a few historical hats of this style, see the context for this reinterpreted design and am warming to it!
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Royal Hats 
Eugenie looks lovely in this outfit. I love the bold, dark color with white circles on her dress. The hat is fun and I love that it goes so well with the dress. While I don’t like perchers that sit at a gravity defying angle, this one at least is gives more of the illusion of a true hat. While I would have simply left off the pink at the very top it does give a splash of color.
Well, I am glad I scrolled down to the earlier comments because I am actually a fan of this hat….and I have to say…wait for it…..this is my favourite hat from today!! I think it is fun and youthful. Good solid colours with a pop of pink for vibrancy, good placement and I am also enjoying the movement and slight lilt in the brim. The hair is fab and Eugenie looks comfortable. Picture number 4 really shows what an attractive girl she is. I think this hat today looks fab on her. Good job Eugenie. I enjoyed it.
I just can’t understand WHY these Princesses don’t have a stylist or someone who advises them what to wear and how to wear it! Sometimes, they look like they have just thrown on the nearest thing to hand and I wish they would get a decent haircut and stylist to do their hair………..long flowing hair and a hat very rarely look good. Take a leaf out of Sophie’s book, or even Lady Gabriella’s, who hardly ever gets it wrong!
The hat is lovely, it’s different and then I see the rear view picture and as usual her hair looks as if she’s pinned it together willy-nilly as she leaves the castle. The frock is a shocker – it doesn’t fit and a strapless bra is not a good look when you’re well-endowed – something she and Zara have inherited from their grandmother and great-grandmother.
So relieved to see the negative comments.
Took a look at the photo’s and while feeling I ‘should’ like this so called “hat”…. I just kept thinking this was nothing short of some intellectual exercise where all would express favor ability knowing it was all a joke. Why are these flat saucers perched on a head called a hat? It seems to get more bizarre each new season. Young beautiful woman and someone (or a collective we) has gone out of their way to make a ridiculous statement at her expense.
There is no known reason why Princess Eugenie should not be dressed with the very best – in order to make her look fantastic! Is this fashion statement – the hat – for the benefit of the designer or the wearer? If the hat doesn’t add to the women’s overall appearance then I am feeling it best to just go without one!
The size and angle of this disc headpiece is great for Eugenie, but the overall execution otherwise is poorly done. The “crown” doesn’t look like it truly even exists, but rather is just something attached to the top of the main part of the disc. If this had been done in sinamay, it could work much better, with a more gently sloping crown that eases into the rest of the hat.
I could really like this hat if the crown wasn’t flat as a pancake. An extra 2 inches would have made a world of difference. As it is, sorry but no.
A no all round from me. The hat looks a craft project by an amateur gone badly wrong. (Which of course it wouldn’t be and would no doubt have cost a good many hundreds of pounds.) There’s simply no excellence in either the style or the making.
And for such a lovely young woman with access to the best designers, the dress, especially around the bosoms, is just too awful.
Eugenie’s hair is excellent here! This is what I have been wanting her hair to be with a hat rather than down. I like the idea of the hat and where it was trying to go… but it didn’t quite make it. It’s too flat and the brim not bent/curved enough. It looks like it got bent in the wind or not put in the hatbox correctly.
I think Princess Eugenie looks very summery and her hat is very fun which is appropriate for Ascot, but the execution looks off, I agree the hat looks to made of felt or some other fabric and looks a bit more like a craft project rather than the high end designer hat it is. I am also baffled at how this hat stays on Eugenie’s head!
A head to toe no for me! She wore a sleeveless dress to Trooping as well and I just don’t think it’s a good look. Too casual, and the openings of the sleeve get so messy. The hat almost looks like felt – which doesn’t scream Royal Ascot and summer. And if you’re going to bend the saucer, go for it!, as my design professor would say. This is almost too straight, and not curved enough. It’s too in between. One of the worst looks of the day for me.
Problems around the bosomage! Perfect comment. I wish the hat had better construction, and the dress a better fit. It appears that seam binding was just glued around the pink bit and not very well done at that. It was a cute idea.
It’s taken me awhile to think about this ensemble. The hat sort of reminds me of outer space with the black being the atmosphere surrounding a planet (the crown). Don’t know if this makes any sense, or even if I like it, but that’s my take! Would have preferred an a-line dress to the gathered skirt, although the dress is a good fit with the hat.
I find this hat very frustrating. I think it’s an interesting concept, but it doesn’t come off. The extreme shallowness of the crown means it isn’t really intended as a proper crown, it is really a sort of saucer hat. But I don’t feel the shallow crown actually adds anything in terms of the shape or design, so why bother, why not go for a proper saucer and have a smooth surface? This way, it just makes the eye think the hat is balancing precariously and isn’t on properly!
It’s quirky, but I like it very much! I’ll bet she was glad of the shade that it cast…
I appreciate the novelty and the colors, but it does look awfully precarious.
I feel like the hat is too flat. It’s almost as if she is walking around with a bullseye precariously perched.
Bullseye is what came to me too. Not a fan of this one and her dress is a bit casual for the occasion. Sadly, none of this is shocking.
I like the bold use of colour but hate the way it just balances on the head. I’m not a fan!
I agree. Part of the hat should encircle part of the head. This is the wrong style of hat to be worn as a percher.
What a fun hat! I really like it and it suits her. I’d have liked to see a lighter dress, this would look with a white or pink dress, this black one isn’t doing her many favours in he bosomage, and it’s a bit heavy for the sunny weather here. Not a bad start from Eugenie at all though.
LOL “the bosomage”. Love it. It’s an interesting way to put it, but, yes, the way the dress fits in the carriage photos doesn’t do her any favors.
I like the colors of the hat, but it needs a taller crown.
Love the hat and it looks great on her.
Love how the bands in the hat echo the circles on the dress. On of her best all around looks ever !