Members of the Swedish Royal Family gathered today at the chapel in the Royal Palace in Stockholm for a Te Deum service of thanksgiving in honour of Crown Princess Victoria’s 40th birthday.
Crown Princess Victoria wore a small headpiece above her chignon in white silk, covered with the same pink lace appliqué butterflies that embellished her dress. The dress is definitely the star here and I understand why a non-competing headpiece was chosen, but I think her white ringed headpiece with roses would have given this ensemble a better sense of occasion that this headpiece- essentially, a decorated barrette.
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Previously Worn: this headpiece is new
Princess Estelle’s braided hairstyle was embellished with some of the same pink lace butterflies from her mum’s dress and headpiece. This use of the butterflies, I heartily applaud! Such a sweet touch.
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Queen Silvia repeated her turquoise straw calot hat with silk flower trim. The first time she wore this piece, it was placed over the crown of her head as calots are usually worn but today, she moved the hat forward on the right side of her face, almost as a cocktail hat. Today’s placement allows the swirling cuff of the piece to be visible and this sense of movement lightens the look of the hat- a brilliant move for a summer event such as this.
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Princess Madeleine topped her pale slate blue floral dress with a matching vertical straw saucer hat trimmed with silk roses and straw twists. Madeleine has embraced these vertical sauces in recent years and wears them very well. The scale and colour are particularly lovely on her.
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Previously Worn: this hat is new
Princess Leonore’s hair was clipped back, off her face, with a sweet pair of barrettes trimmed in white silk blossoms.
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Previously Worn: This hat is new
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Update: Princess Christina’s daughter-in-law, Vicky Andren, shared this photo from the event. She wore a white disc headpiece edged in black, trimmed with a white silk rose and straw bow.
There were some great hats today in Stockholm, and a few millinery surprises to keep us royal hat fans on our toes. What do you think of the hats worn for Crown Princess Victoria’s celebration today?
Royal Hats 
I always think Princess Birgitte must be confused about her age. She dresses like a twenty-something, and it doesn’t work
What do you think about her fascinator? Let’s keep the conversation to the hats!
I actually like PSofia’s hat…it’s a bit large for her, but so cute! I could see this paired with a crisp navy suit with white trim!
Not a fan of the “vertical” saucers, but PMadeleine looks lovely and the blue really accentuates her eyes!
Victoria’s hair ornament is nice. Wish she’d do something with her hair besides slick it back.
I prefer Queen Silvia’s calot as worn on its first outing. I like the butterfly arrangement in Victoria’s hair, a smaller swarm of butterflies on her dress would have been preferable. Madeleine’s hat looks beautiful, although side-splat hats will never be my first choice. Love Sofia’s hat but I think it’s an inch too big all over for her. Two out of the three aunts look very nicely put together – Birgitte just makes me shake my head. I think I’d possibly give the win to Vicky Andren …. and I don’t like these its-bitsy hats.
I like Queen Silvia’s placement of her turquoise calot. Very nice, very current. Gives the design elements of the hat more attention.
Princess Madeleine’s vertical saucer is fun and very British.
Princess Sofia’s hat is … problematical for me. It’s a fabulous hat, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think this is the outfit or the occasion for this hat. This is an ASCOT hat! Big, bold, giant bow, strong color and shape – please invite this woman to the horse race/hat display! I just wouldn’t put it together with this floral dress, or this occasion. That being said, I give her points for wearing a big hat! Maybe a bit to far forward over her right eye, but still good.
Princess Christina’s hat and Princess Desiree’s hat were both good.
As for the birthday girl, well, she can wear whatever she wants! The butterflies are adorable on Princess Estelle. Would I like a proper hat on Crown Princess Victoria? Yes. Still, if this is what she wants to wear, then more power to her. She looks lovely and like she is having a good day.
Well done, Swedish Royal Family! And, thanks for all the photos!
Victoria: Not my favorite hat ( if you can call it that) but it doesn’t detract from her fun summery dress.
Silvia: She looked very nice but this seems her basic style.
Madeline: loved her hat it looked fantastic with her dress.
Sofia: I also liked the hat, maybe because it is so different from what she usually wears.
Estelle and Leonore: very sweet and pretty
My favorite of the king’s sisters is the wide brimmed black straw.
Happy Birthday to the birthday Princess!
as far as I know HQ this is your largest blog about a Swedish hats occasions. wonderful, Sofia wins it for me!
You might want to look back at King Carl Gustaf’s 70th birthday celebrations or the christening of Prince Oscar (there are links at the bottom of each post to secondary posts with hats worn by the extended Swedish royal family and other royal guests). The “Major Royal Hatted Events” tab just under this blog’s heading contains links to all major royal events covered here.
Oh my goodness….I am laughing. I could not wait to get on here and say how much I dislike Sophia’s hat and what do I find…the total opposite!! I am a major fan of the Princess, she seems like a breath of fresh air and is totally herself but I think this hat is ALL kinds of wrong. It looks WAY too big, I HATE the oversized bow, the split brim rising up on one side just looks too sharp and tall and to finish it off, the hat is placed so far forward that Sophia seems to be struggling to see. I absolutely think it looks so not her. But that bow- yeeks. Please, not again, It just seems way too old for Sophia, she is such an attractive and modern young woman. OK Sorry, finished now. Looked like a lovely day and Princess Madeleine’s hat is beautiful on her, gorgeous shade and those Treacey flowers are always exquisite. Thanks HQ.
24 hours later, I have to admit that the surprise of seeing Princess Sofia in an actual hat might have warmed me up to this design more than it should have. I still like the movement of the brim but the bow is a bit much.
Totally agree. Sophia’s hat just does not work. it covers her face too completely–you can hardly see her, even full face. (Particularly noticeable in the group photo!) It is very difficult to find an appropriately scaled hat when one is advanced in pregnancy, but, especially augmented by the bow, it’s just too much hat for the princess.
Being new to the world of royal hat critiquing, I was holding back, but I do want to agree with Louise E — Sofia’s hat is just too big all around — the bow, the brim, the hat itself. I like that unusual indentation in the back of the brim, but my initial impression was that of a little girl playing dress-up with her mother’s hat — a nice hat in itself, but way too large for the wearer. If the bow were the same but smaller, and if the entire hat were smaller, I might have liked it on her quite a bit. My favorite out of all of these is Princess Christina’s — interesting embellishments, and goes very nicely with her dress.
But the very best thing about this post is the fact that when a woman in Sweden turns 40 she gets a Te Deum, unlike here in the U.S. where she would get the suggestion that she should never again be honest about her age!
Victoria is wearing a glorified hairclip, which is disappointing in terms of hattery, but she looked great otherwise; her dress is really fun! Happy birthday!
I’m very much in favor of this cocktail placement for Silvia’s hat; I’m not a huge fan of calots in general, and as Silvia often wears calots and pillboxes, this is a refreshing and successful change. The color is beautiful, of course.
Madeleine looked lovely and the ice blue is a great color for her. The hat is a good one for her, but as it is a very common Treacy style worn by many royals over the last few years, and therefore it doesn’t excite me like it should.
As I’m certain is true with pretty much everyone else on here, I was very excited to see this hat on Sofia. The big bow and the wrap-around brim are divine details. My biggest complaint is I wish it didn’t sit so far forward; tilt it a little back off of her face, and it would be even better. Overall this was definitely my favorite of the day. Keep this up Sofia; we knew you had it in you! Brava!
Out of the three sisters, Christina wins the hattery stakes as she often does. Birgitta and Marianne’s fascinators hardly show up, so of course that’s disappointing to me. I do like Désirée’s hat, but her overall look seems a bit dated (a.k.a. the 90s).
Overall a fun showing of hats, with a couple great surprises!
My favourite hat is Princess Christina’s. I love the black and white feathers, or whatever they are, and the polka dots on the base of the hat are a surprise and fun.
I like Princess Sofia’s hat a lot, especially from the angle that shows how the split brim is tucked in. Still, it seems a tad ‘off.’ But after looking again, I think it may just be Sofia learning how to move, and hold her head in such a large hat.
My winners:
Queen Silvia, for choosing to update her look with a hat placement that is modern and fresh. Dynamic.
Princes Christina, for rocking a perky disc and and an on-trend floral print; Countess Marianne for the breathy romance of her floral headpiece.
My almost winners:
Madeleine — Faaabulous hat, perfect hair and earrings — too bad about the busy, frouffy dress which doesn’t relate to the strong elements of the hat.
Sofia– I want to like this hat — but the entire look is spoiled for me by the way the hat seems to have slipped forward too far over her right eye. Sofia’s hairstyle isn’t balancing the severity of the angle either- the bun is too dropped. I hope to see the hat again (as I love a big bow) — but worn differently.
What a beautiful group of headpieces and hats today. Love the butterflies on Victoria and Estelle. Madeline looks stunning in a hat color that brings out her beautiful blue eyes. I remember Queen Letizia wearing a similar hat in a shade of light mauve to a royal wedding. Sophia looks absolutely lovely in her biggest hat to date. I am not a fan of this light turquoise calot Queen Silvia chose to wear, but she, as always, looks elegant no matter what hat she wears. Beautiful day for a fortieth birthday!
Letizia hasn’t worn a purple hat- are you thinking about the one she wore for the Dutch enthronement? Or the Luxembourg royal wedding?
Sofia’s hat is definitely a star turn, dramatic and yet quite simple, no other material introduced for the trim but the most made of the straw. Madeline’s is also an excellent hat. I feel I’ve seen one that’s extremely similar on a royal head, but can’t remember which one. Maybe I’m thinking of one of Letizia’s handful, but I have a nagging feeling there’s another. The Countess of Wessex? Or Mary?
Wearing it at such a different angle is certainly a good way to get a different look out of the Queen’s hat. I’m not sure I have a preference.
Victoria looks lovely overall, but I have to say the headpiece is disappointing.
Sheikha Jalila of Dubai wore this same shape for Day 2 and Day 3 of Ascot this year.
I had a really strong feeling that I’d seen Madeline’s hat before, which I can’t have done if it’s new, and that’s why I was nagged by a sense of having seen something extremely similar. I’m probably thinking of Letizia’s hat for the Dutch enthronement. You have such an encyclopedic memory, HatQueen, that I’m sure you’d have been able to pinpoint any others if there had been!
HQ, I agree with your assessment that the ringed white headpiece would be a better match for CP Victoria’s dress, but I guess she’s the birthday girl, she can wear what she wants! I love Princess Estelle’s butterflies — a perfect way to get a mother-daughter look without getting too cute.
Princesses Christina and Desiree were hatted up very well, but this is the best hat EVER for Princess Sofia. My first take was that it looked oversized and blocky, but the transparency of the straw lightens it considerably.
I love P. Sophia’s hat. It looks good from every angle. P. Madeleine’s hat is pretty but the color lacks punch and it doesn’t have any interesting features on the slice side. I prefer Queen Silvia’s calot worn in the traditional way-back on her head. It certainly is more visible like this – but the shape is a little odd.
I’m with Glitter Girl- I saw a sneak peak of Sofia’s hat on IG and it made me swoon. SO FABULOUS!!!!!!! Everything else pales in comparison. It’s actually a strong contender for me for best new hat of the year (so far). And it looks so good on her and her outfit is lovely as well. PMadeleine and PChristina’s hats are also lovely. It’s wonderful to see Princess Christina in particular. I love PVictoria’s dress, but do feel like it was a missed hat opportunity. In any case, she looks lovely and I wish her a very happy birthday!
I actually exclaimed out loud when I saw Sofia’s hat. Her whole ensemble is delightful. Queen Silvia is her usual elegant self, and Madeleine’s hat is lovely, although her dress isn’t really to my liking. The King’s sisters look nice, although I personally feel their skirts are too short. But Victoria is definitely the star of the show, as she should be on her day. Estelle is truly an adorable poised child. I live here sharing butterflies with her mother.