No mistaking this hat wearer, despite the unusual angle.
We don’t often get a view beneath the brims of Queen Elizabeth’s fabric covered hats but this snap gives a peek at the straw structure of the hat that I thought some of you might find interesting.
Royal Hats 
This seam is a feature of The Queen’s Angela Kelly designed fabric covered hats many of which also have deep crowns. Obviously it is not required for a felt or uncovered straw hat such as most of those made by Rachel Trevor Morgan and others. Philip Wright’s video “How a hat is made” gives useful insights. I doubt the seam is the result of ineptitude although it may be a way of economising on fabric. I have never had the impression that Angela Kelly makes The Queen’s hats.
I enjoy reading the questions/answers/ponderings on millinery techniques. There are a lot of whys and why nots here!
Jumbo, thanks for the wonderful video.
This is the second time at “Royal Hats” I’ve been called “Jumbo.” Now I’m developing a complex!
While I’m munching on celery and carrot sticks, I’d like to wish everyone a wonderful weekend. I’m crossing my FAT fingers for some nice black millinery on this Veterans Day/Remembrance Day weekend.
Sorry, I meant Jimbo.
LOL!
Jimbo! Speaking as the person who made that mistake the first time… Do you happen to own or have ever used any Android devices recently? Since their last operating system upgrade, they have changed the spell-check on them to something almost like A.I. — it not only fixes legitimate spelling errors, but assumes it knows what you meant to say and fixes those also, sometimes even changing entire words to the point of changing your meaning. I’m a very good speller and rarely need to use spell-check, but I can’t figure out how to turn it off. Hence, your name is always changed to “Jumbo” and has to be changed back. This afternoon, I typed the word “multi-year” and it changed it to “multi-level”, which goes WAY beyond spellcheck! I am typing this on my laptop to avoid any misunderstandings. I make a point now of very carefully re-reading anything I’ve typed online to make sure I didn’t miss any “corrections” that I need to un-correct, but I think others either are not taking the time, or have not yet even caught on to the problem. I can see the errors happening in the writings of many people I know. If anyone knows how to turn it off, please help us!
Matthew, I agree this is becoming even more of a problem. With online comments these days, one needs the skills of an intelligence decoder to interpret what people are saying – it just needs one word to be changed by the spell-checker, to make a whole sentence incomprehensible.
My old mobile from years ago used to do a very odd correction. When texting my kids, I would sign off “mum”, and it would change that to “nun” each and every time. After a while I began to leave it uncorrected, and I even took to wearing my wimple and veil in public (just kidding!) I think the spellchecker could not recognise British English.
I have an iPhone now, so cant offer advice – good luck with finding a solution!
Interesting debate ! But why, I wonder, is the visible seam in the back such a problem ? Clothes have seams and they are very visible, sometimes even crucial to emphasize the lines of the garment.
Do not forget that a seam, specially in a thickish fabric, does not only show up as a line but also as a volume that can’t be flattened out completely. So if you were to put the seam in the front, you’d have to take care that it was covered up properly, which would take away your liberty to trim the hat the way it would look best.
As to the seam sewn on the bias : in fact when you see a diagonal line, it means that the fabric is used on the bias, the seam is not, it is sewn with the grain. When the fabric is patterned, as in this case with a wafer pattern, it may be a consideration to not use it on the bias in which case the seam will show up as a vertical line instead of a diagonal one.
I notice that the fabric of the crown and the brim are not used in the same direction, which is unusual. It may be because of the way the embroidery was placed on the fabric or because there was not enough fabric available to do it otherwise.
One last consideration : we are looking at the Queens clothes in close up, but the majority of the people watching the ceremony will not stand close enough to notice these details. I think it is a lovely hat that suits Her Majesty very well !
I agree with Wies 100% on both the construction issue and the standing close issue, but would also like to add – I’m a weaver, not a milliner, and I don’t know a thing about the rules of hat making except what I’ve learned here, but as a person who deals with handmade fabric, I have to say that I’m more bothered by the fact that the textured diamonds do not properly match up on the seam than by the fact that there IS a seam!
Thanks for the video, Jimbo. It was a wonderful service and great to remember again and again.
The photo from the different angle is wonderful – very sweet and human. Her Majesty can be very dear. I do love that yellow hat.
The rear seam on the hat’s crown is not as noticeable as in yesterday’s deep pink hat, but I’ll raise the same question as I have in the past: why couldn’t the seam be up front, and covered by the flowers/feathers, etc., that are used for the decoration?
Enjoy the video from June 10, 2016.
Or, as British milliner Katie Vale once asked, why is it not sewn on the bias, creating a diagonal (and almost invisible) seam, as is done in most traditional millinery technique? My followup question to this is wondering how much millinery training Angela Kelly has completed.