The Japanese Red Cross Society’s annual convention took place yesterday in Tokyo, attended by Honorary President Empress Michiko who has been active in the society’s work for more than sixty years. For this event, she repeated a cream silk covered saucer hat with transparent lattice printed underbrim, trimmed with a flat grey and cream bow. She also tucked some greenery into the hat, a touch I’ve not seen her do before.
For this, Empress Michiko’s last year as Honorary President, she was accompanied by Crown Princess Masako, Princess Kiko, Princess Nobuko and Princess Hisako. Crown Princess Masako wore a navy silk covered square crowned hat with upturned bumper brim. Princess Kiko topped her grey suit with a matching square crowned bowler with upturned kettle brim and wide silk monochrome hatband. Princess Nobuko paired her black and navy silk jacquard print dress with a repeated cream hat with short, upswept brim and navy silk hatband and side bow. Princess Hisako topped her grey silk jacquard suit in a grey cloche/bucket hat wrapped in a wide wrap of dotted grey tulle. The resulting effect of the tulle wrap is unexpected and rather lovely!
Royal Hats 
I sincerely hope that I won’t be offending anyone but do any of the Imperial princesses ever wear hats other than the bowler, squared crown hat, etc.? Also, can anyone explain the uniform-like suits that the Imperial princesses seem to wear frequently? Or, if anyone can direct me to a resource that would explain the dressing ritual of the Imperial women. Thank you in advance.
The bucket hat does have a sort of flower-pot/candle-snuffer air to it, unfortunately. But the Empress is exquisitely chic as always.
It’s amazing what those little green leaves did to elevate this hat’s beauty! This really makes me miss some of the Empress’ hats from the 2000s, which had a lot more florals in them.
Masako’s whole look is pretty standard for her, but with her hair up it seems severe, so I think this ensemble would be better with her hair down.
Nothing new for Kiko either, but I do think she’s looks elegant here.
I really like Nobuko’s hat (reminds me of Camilla’s famous navy and white one), but what is going on with the sleeves of her dress? Different color and fabric from the body, but unfortunately it looks rather disjointed.
Hisako’s hats are almost always the best at any event (the Empress is in a category of her own, however). I thought at first this was covered in little guinea fowl feathers, which made me excited for a Japanese hat with feathers, but alas, it looks to be too good to be true. At any rate, more photos of this soon please!
They all look cool and elegant, especially the empress, whose little sprig of green is very touching somehow. (It is amazing how potent is such a tiny change in the extremely narrow, though often beautiful, vocabulary of the empress’s hats.) I do not find Princess Hisako’s hat. at least as it appears in this photo, appealing: it casts too much shadow over her face–otherwise, she looks lovely.
I like Princess Hisako’s a grey cloche/bucket hat wrapped in a wide wrap of dotted grey tulle. Pretty and unusual.
The Empress will be missed. But how lovely to see her supported by these four ladies. The sprig of green makes me smile. Spring is here! I am particularly taken by Princess Hisako’s chic hat.
classic elegant look for the empress,I like the touch of green in the saucer
the rest look very appropriate for the occasion