Monthly Archives: March 2018

This Week’s Extras

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Royal Hats

Empress Michiko in an icy blue saucer hat with folded silk bow on Thursday in Okinawa (Asahi Shimbun)

March 29, 2018 | Royal Hats

The Swedish King and Queen accompanied Easter greetings with a casual photo of themselves enjoying the outdoors in cosy winter hats 

Zara Tindall in a grey ‘Jasmine Beanie’ from Barts last weekend at the Gatcombe Horse Trials held on her mum’s estate

Rachel Trevor Morgan Millinery staff supported brain tumour research’s “Wear A Hat To Work” campaign on Thursday with a quintet of stunning designs

Legendary milliner Marie O’Regan at the London Hat Week showing of a film about her work, ‘The Millinery Lesson’

The following new millinery designs caught my eye this week:

Restrained but very chic grey straw cap with folded bow from French milliner Veronica Marucci
Purple leather percher with vibrant feathers made by UK milliner Bundle McLaren for her mum
The prettiest oversize pale blue saucer with twist of tiny blossoms from UK brand Merve Bayindir
Creative touch on this grey felt fedora’s hatband by UK based Camilla Rose Millinery
These lovely flower trimmed hats from Fabienne Delvigne’s new spring couture collection. I have a hunch we’ll see several of these pieces (or variations on these pieces) on several royal heads this season.

And the most stunning blue leather pillbox percher with hand beaded leaf trim by Dutch milliner Wies Mauduit (a familiar commenter here on Royal Hats!). The leaves are beautifully constructed and their placement is absolutely perfect on this hat (check out her  (also check out her exquisite picture hats). Wies- your stunning designs deserve to be worn on royal heads!

 

 Royal Hats

Queen Margrethe opened the Aarhus exhibition on her wardrobe

Lovely portrait shared by Prince Hussein with his father and younger brother, Prince Hashem

And we kick off Easter weekend festivities with these snaps of the Monaco royals watching a Good Friday procession from the royal palace balcony

Photo from The Asahi Shimbun

Princess Eugenie’s Easter Hats

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To squeeze in one more retrospective of British royal Easter hats before this weekend, let’s look back at the Easter bonnets worn Princess Eugenie:

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Dark navy straw stovepipe in 2003 and 2004; Simple cream wool beret in 2010

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Pale grey percher with bow in 2011; Black felt  Jane Taylor design with feathers in 2012;
Pale pink silk covered button percher with abstract leaves by Sarah Cant in 2013

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Dark Green straw Robyn Coles design with calla lily in 2014; Pink felt percher with bow and flower trim from Juliette Botterill in 2016;  Cream leather percher with pink straw ombre flower from Goldust Millinery in 2017

UPDATE- Since this post was first published, the following hats have been worn by Princess Eugenie on Easter Sunday

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Bright fuchsia felt brimless hat with side knot trim for 2018 ; Blue straw braided pillbox on Maundy Thursday in 2019, both by Juliette Botterill

The York princesses have long been associated with statement millinery… and association that just doesn’t seem to ring completely true with this lineup of hats. There are some interesting trims (the silk leaves in 2013 and that giant calla lily in 2014) but the colour palate is very muted and the shapes rather restrained. I appreciate that Princess Eugenie has not chosen the same types of statement hats for Easter that she does for Ascot (appropriately so!) but I’d love to see her in a bit more colour and pizzaz at this time of year.

What do you think about this history of Easter hats? And if you were Princess Eugenie’s stylist, what kind of hat would you suggest for her this Easter?

Photos from AFP via Getty; Getty as indicated

Queen Attends Maundy Thursday Service

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Queen Elizabeth attended Maundy Thursday service today at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. For this service, at the end of which she distributes traditional Maundy Thursday monies to 92 men and 92 women (for each of her own years of life), she wore a vibrant blue new hat.

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Covered in the same textured blue silk cloque fabric as her coat, the hat features a square crown and downward facing brim with black faux fur wrapped raised kettle edge. The hat is simply trimmed with a hatband covered in the same fabric.
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There is much to like about this ensemble- the open collar links Her Majesty’s floral dress with the ensemble (much more easily than a peek at the hem) and the black cuffs, collar, buttons and brim edging give a punchy contrast that link with the ever present black shoes and purse. The texture on the blue fabric is also lovely… which brings me to my quibbles. Like many fabric covered Angela Kelly hats designed for the Queen, this one is too much of a good thing. The faux fur wrapped kettle brim edge is also clunky- I think it would have been more refined in velvet instead (with velvet cuffs on the coat to match?). I sense that the sharp colour palate of the hat would benefit with sharper execution (like diagonal seams on the faux fur brim edging, a basic technique that leaves the seam barely visible) that we often see in hats made for the Queen by other designers.

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Designer: Angela Kelly
Previously Worn: this hat is new
I worry that I am unfairly harsh with Angela Kelly’s work… today’s hat, however, simply doesn’t feel up to snuff. What do you think of this vibrant new design?
Photos from Getty as indicated

Imperial Couple Visits Okinawa

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Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Okinawa Tuesday for a short visit- likely their final to the city before the Emperor’s abdication next April- which was at the couple’s request to pay tribute to an area that saw much destruction during WWII. For their arrival, Empress Michiko wore a new hat.

Mar 27, 2018 | Royal Hats  Mar 27, 2018 | Royal Hats

In a predictable saucer shape, this silk covered hat features a gently domed center and underbrim in silver windowpane patterned crin (or light straw?) and is finished with a grey silk bow. The feature of note here is the underbrim- a lovely feature that lightens the otherwise lackluster hat.

 Mar 27, 2018 | Royal Hats Mar 27, 2018 | Royal Hats

Designer: unknown. Likely Akio Hirata
Previously Worn: this hat is new
I suspect the Empress chose her go-to grey as the first day of this visit included a stop at Okinawa Peace Memorial Hall. Grey is a good choice for memorial events although I’ll forever wish to see Empress Michiko in brighter colours. 

Dutch Queen Supports Language Foundation

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Queen Máxima was in Amersfoort yesterday to join in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Het Begint met Taal (It Begins with Language) foundation, an organization that each week supports 15,000 volunteers around the country support and coach 28,000 non-native speakers as they learn the Dutch language and culture. For yesterday’s anniversary conference,  the Dutch queen repeated her dark plum felt hat with familiar upswept ‘slice’ brim.

In an interesting pairing, Máxima wore the hat with her bright pink Natan dress. While the dark burgundy and pink shades were brought together in her amazing earrings, I think the dark hued felt hat reads very winter and this was at odds with the very spring feeling dress. Dressing in between seasons is difficult at the best of times and while I like both this hat and dress, I don’t like them together.