A tradition of British infantry regiments since the 17th century, the Trooping the Colour ceremony was performed today on Horse Guards Parade by St. James’s Park. The event marks the monarch’s official birthday celebration and concluded, as in years past, with the entire British royal family appearing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to witness a military flypast.
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For the event, Queen Elizabeth her repeated sky blue hat with straw sideswept brim and wool silk covered crown. The hat is trimmed with a wide stripe of wool silk binding on the brim’s edge and a posy of blue and white silk flowers, blue seed pearls and slim white feathers, along with several looped blue blue wool silk bows.
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The bright turquoise hue of the piece made Her Majesty stand out in the sea of red uniforms. It’s a lovely colour on her, as is the scale and shape of this piece. I’ve said before that the beautiful detail of the floral trim is lost except at close-up view, which is a bit disappointing at such a high profile event as this.
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Designer: Angela Kelly
Previously Worn: July 6, 2016; November 28, 2015
As in years past, members of the royal family holding the rank of Colonel in various regiments rode along in the military parade. The distinctive plumes in each of their bearskin hats signify their respective regiments- striped green and white plume of the Welsh Guards for the Prince of Wales, St. Patrick’s blue plume of the Irish Guards for the Duke of Cambridge and white plume of the Grenadier Guards for the Duke of York, who rode in this year’s parade for the first time. The Princess Royal again appeared in uniform as Colonel of the Blues and Royals with the wonderful red plumed bicorne hat of this regiment.
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Royal Hats 
The birthday girl looks lovely in blue. As always I love the hat style on HM. I am not as great a fan of the embellishment but it is a small quibble! The men look dignified in their uniforms and big bearskin hats. I too always wonder how they see. I especially love how Princess Anne joins in, in uniform. Is the hat she wears the female counterpoint to the large bearskin hat or simply the hat for her regiment? I think it is great to see Prince Andrew as part of the lineup, taking over for his father. Will Edward ever be in this group?
From a distance, the flower trim looks like a little firework going off. Less subtle, but still fun.
A beautiful color for HM as always, and overall the trim is great on this hat, but I will never be a fan of how asymmetrical this brim is, and the fabric loop bow on the side of the floral trim is a bit odd for me. I’m also a little surprised Philip didn’t show up for this event; guess he’s taking his retirement quite seriously.
The Queen’s hat is lovely and I agree with others that the trim is so delicate it’s hard to see unless it’s a close up, but then you can see how beautiful it is. The military headdresses are just splendid and although it was a disappointment not to see the DofE, it was nice to see the Duke of York. I’m a York family fan and can’t wait to see the post on them!
Poor Charles and William can hardly see from under their bearskins. I wonder why they’re so big and Andrew’s is a bit smaller?
I saw on twitter that Andrew wore the hat and sword he was given by Prince Philip. And he rode a horse named Elizabeth, lol.
Thanks maja, that’s such a cute reason I’m not even worried whether it’s true or not!
I was thinking that his father gave him his bearskin headdress! I agree that this is a nice explanation.
I thought this was a great choice for the Trooping, and have hoped we’d see it again. It’s a fab colour and I think the hat is balanced and restrained. The flowers are lovely if the detail can get a bit lost. All in all, a great choice.