forty years ago to this day in 1977 and the christening of Peter Philips at Buckingham Palace. Turbans seem to be the style of the day and the Queen, her mother, her sister and daughter all wore versions in blue. The colour coordination is amusing, as is the slight air of ‘swimming costume’ eminating from the Queen Mum’s blue feathered design and the ‘fallen chef’s hat’ look of Princess Anne’s striped design. Thankfully, this is not a millinery era that looks likely to come back en vogue.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Photo from Getty as indicated and Mirrorpix via Getty
Royal Hats 
Princess Anne out and about in 1981, carrying Zara.
Anne looks so confident with her first baby, even with Peter yelling. That first shot, where she looks like she’s blowing a raspberry to Mummy, is amazing. So relaxed. The royal women still do often co-ordinate colours but here it’s the patterns that are making my eyes curl. Not sure where to look! The sleeves on Margaret’s coat make her look like a prop forward trying to ‘muscle in’ to the front row! Hideous hats all round, apart from Princess Alice (and what I can see of Mrs Phillips).
I like the striped design for Anne’s outfit, but having a matching hat in this fabric is too much, like Matthew said. Glad to see all of these stay in the 70s. Also, I enjoy seeing Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, here in her fur hat (looking a bit like Camilla in that hat haha); Alice had a great hat and outfit at Anne’s wedding.
Thanks for identifying the lady in the fur hat, Jake. I’ve just had fun reading about the Countess of Athlone on Wikipedia. The last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria! Her hat does indeed look like one of Camilla’s.
When Princess Anne turns to look over her shoulder in the video, she bears more than a passing resemblance to the actress Miranda Hart (to me, at least) when she portrays “Chummy” in Call the Midwife. All in all these are hats I would like to forget. My own daughter was baptized at much the same time and I spotted a teal blue felt number I bought in London and thought I was very elegant. Sadly my husband had purchased a three piece plaid suit which he sported for the occasion!!!! Let’s just say those photos are not displayed for all to see…….
I think Anne’s hat would have been a little less OMG style-wise if it had not been in the same fabric as her dress! Interestingly, when I tried to do an image search on the group photo, looking for a wider view, all that came up was the cover of the 40th anniversary DVD collection of “The Pallisers”, with the cast all wearing similar well-coordinated matching blues.
I’m sure the Duke was there somewhere — that shot looks like there were others cut off on both sides. Who is the lady on the far left — is that Princess Alice?
A millinery trend one is happy to see as historical!
OK, all you sleuths. Where is the Duke of Edinburgh?
Chuck, apparently, the Duke had stepped out to check on the ice for the drinks during the photo shoot! HM’s ensemble looks greener to me in the video, but still very nice!
Which means the Queen Mother is saying in this photo, “did you put my Dubonny and gin on the ice? I prefer it chilled, but neat, and with the thinnest slice of lemon.”
Dubonnet, please, Chuck! The Paris Métro tunnels used to have painted adverts reading “Dubo – Dubon – Dubonnet”.
The Duke hovers on the extreme left at about 12 or 13 seconds into the video; he does make himself scarce in the rest of the photographic record of the day.