35 years ago today to a young princess in a bright pink silk covered brimless hat made by John Boyd. Worn on Diana’s first trip to Australia, I’ve always loved the ruffle flower trim.
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Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
My poor knowledge persuades me that silence is personally a wise course, but a dearth of comments by no means shows a lack of appreciation for everything you do, Hat Queen, and for everything I enjoy and learn.
None of us here are experts, Scott so please, feel free to add your voice any time! And thank you.
Such an 80s hat but its cute on her.
This post is now a day and a half old and I’m waiting for new stuff. Queen Maxima and Queen Elizabeth both wore hats today and I can see them on other blogs but not here yet. You really need to get new posts up faster. Your blogs is so much slower than all the other royal blogs.
Manhattan, I know that I speak for MANY Royal Hat enthusiasts out in the cyber world when I marvel everyday at HQ’s wonderful work. Being a one-person operation, it’s a minor miracle what she accomplishes in such a timely manner. My dear departed mother stated many times: patience is a virtue, and good things come to those who wait. Go out and buy a hat!
Posts on both these hats are written and ready to go. If you can find a source of legal photos to include, I’m all ears. At this point, the posts are both waiting for photos. When legally shareable photos are available, the posts will go up. I assure you- I am not delaying posts to frustrate you. I also don’t care about what other bloggers choose to do about copyright laws. A quick scan also confirmed that the credible royal blogs I follow (and are linked in the left column on the main page) have also not posted today’s new events.
This is the second time you’ve raised this issue- if you raise it again, you will find yourself no longer able to comment at Royal Hats.
On a lighter note, I suggest you follow Jimbo’s brilliant advice!
As a sometime professional photographer I thank you for your stance on photo re-use. I wish others on the net were so scrupulous.
All very ‘twee’ of course and very much of its time.
I ought to have said, however, that the colours are most striking – especially the vibrant blue.
Diana wore a blue hat on the same tour with an almost identical trim (although the base was different): https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/prince-and-princess-of-wales-tour-of-australia-and-new-news-photo/639597822#/prince-and-princess-of-wales-tour-of-australia-and-new-zealand-in-the-picture-id639597822 Here is a better side view of the trim on the blue:.
Diana wore so many of these hats with small bases and and a “hanging” trim, either at the back or on one side — they were such a part of Diana’s style signature — that I almost feel as if she invented the style –(though plenty of others would certainly have worn these hats too).
Perhaps because this hat says “Diana” to me so strongly, I can’t imagine anyone wearing this hat today – I guess I’ve got a real mental block on this style.
I think she is prettier in blue than in pink. Here’s a nice color shot from April, 1983. This must have been a long tour!
lovely in blue.
Jimbo, according to Jane Owens’ “Diana Fashion Diary” (my “bible” from that era), they left Heathrow for Australia on March 18, left Australia for New Zealand on April 17, left New Zealand for Eleuthera (Bahamas) on April 30, and then returned to England on May 11, so yes indeed, an amazingly long tour. You can see why Diana would have revolted against the then-customary practice of leaving the baby (Prince William) at home!
I forgot about this hat- while the base is clearly more of a calot shape, the two certainly are cousins! That shade of blue is stunning on her.
A very pretty pink hat for a young woman. I like how the hat sits on her head rather than at some precarious angle. The whole outfit is not to matchy-matchy but goes well together in my opinion and it looks comfortable.
The hat really doesn’t bear much relation to the outfit and vice-versa, but that was the 80s for you – colour, pattern, shoulder-pads, big hair. Aye, a rocking good time. I really like this hat and can imagine it on a royal head today. Queen Mathilde has the a similar sort of hairstyle, for instance. The ruffled flower is glorious, although I suspect milliners of today would make the pillbox base slightly less plain. A percher-type base and Zara would make a good showing in this too. (I’m deliberately *not* imagining Kate in it.)
If you look closely at the stripes in her dress, there is a pink one in the same shade as her hat.
Yes, I saw the colour match. I was meaning more the school-marmish vibe of the high neckline, the pleating on the neckline and the bow at the neck. To me, the hat looks like it would be ‘happier’ with another style of dress, is all.
Sandra, the outfit she is wearing actual predates her wedding. She wore it to Ascot on June 16, 1981, during her engagement (with a different hat), and then afterwards went to watch Charles play polo at Smith’s Lawn, Windsor. It is actually a jacket over a sundress with straps. I have seen photos of just the sundress without the jacket, though I can’t find them now, but here is a photo taken at Smith’s Lawn with the jacket open and a necklace — quite a different look.
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You can see close-up views of the original hat worn at Ascot here:
http://www.lionheartv.net/2017/10/cnn-philippines-airs-special-report-princess-diana/ (scroll down to the 3rd photo)
and also here: https://indulgy.com/post/q048Yexqm3/june-prince-charles-his-fiance-lady-diana-spence
The outfit is by designer David Neil, and the hat (the original Ascot hat) is by John Boyd.
Wowee, I am constantly amazed – and delighted – at the knowledge swishing around on this site. Impressed, much! Thanks so much Matthew. The outfit is a real charma charms chameleon. x
So I was looking for something else, and lo and behold, I found the picture I couldn’t find before of this outfit worn as a sundress without the jacket. Judging by the background and the other two photos that are attached, I think this might have been during the honeymoon, but I haven’t verified that. Can’t post the actual photo here due to prohibition against uncredited Pinterest photos, but you can see it here just below the sections:
HatQueen, I’m sorry! I just put in the link, thinking that was what would show — it didn’t say embed or anything. I don’t know how to not show the photos, or how to delete these, but if you want to remove them, I understand.
I wonder if she had any part of her early hat designs or whether she just wore what was designed for her at that stage? The pink is very pretty.
I must say I love the looser, flowy style of clothing shown here, if not every detail. At 5’10”, Diana wore her outfits and hats so extremely well, goodness.
It’s pretty, but I think my beef with some of her early 80s looks is that they could have been worn by her Mother in Law. You can see the signs of the butterfly coming out of the chrysalis but there were still a couple of years to go yet.
The first 20 seconds show Diana in motion, the rest is of Charles “in motion” with his horse. Enjoy.
April 10, 1983, St. Paul’s, Holbrook.