Yearly Archives: 2018

Swedish Royals Celebrate Bernadotte Bicentenary

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King Carl Gustaf, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel paid a one-day official visit to Pau, France on Sunday to celebrate the Bernadotte Dynasty’s bicentenary.

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The Swedish royal amily posed with Mayor of Pau, Francois Bayrou, in front of a portrait of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte who was born in the French city and 200 years ago, became king of Sweden and Norway under the name Karl XIV Johan

While Queen Silvia did not wear a hat, Crown Princess Victoria topped her garnet dress with a matching silk floral headpiece in shades of rosy cordovan-brown and deep claret. She wears the autumnal hues well and I adore how the headpiece was chosen to coordinate with the dress rather than perfectly match. Victoria’s go-to choice of floral headpieces at many hat-wearing royal events sometimes feel underwhelming but the substantial scale and interesting layers of colour and texture on this one makes it work well for her and the layers of colour and texture make it an interesting on

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Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: This design is new
Thoughts about this new headpiece?
Photos from Getty as indicated

Red Sunday Hats In Scotland

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This past Sunday, Queen Elizabeth was again spotted en route to church with a group of family members that included Lady Sarah Chatto (sorry, no hat), the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. While the Duchess repeated her red felt blocked beret with pheasant feather – a hat we’ve seen numerous times in Scotland this year – the Queen’s choice of millinery gives us a peek at a hat I’ve been waiting to see again for nearly three years.

When we first saw this hat, back on Christmas day in 2015, it was obscured by an umbrella and a good view eluded us. While photos through a car window are hardly ideal, they do show a flat, cylinder shaped crown with straight sides, all covered in the same silk wool as the ensemble’s matching coat, and a faux fur kettle style brim with what looks to be a round pompom trim on one side. I’m not a great fan of the combination of mottled grey faux fur with the red ensemble – perhaps narrower cuffs, the same width as the brim, might add refinement and better balance to the ensemble.

Designer: Angela Kelly
Previously Worn: Dec 25, 2015
This past Sunday was the Queen’s final weekend in Scotland- she and the Duke of Edinburgh were spotted boarding a flight back to London, likely in preparation for Princess Eugenie’s wedding on Friday. The Queen has worn new hats to all of her grandchildren’s weddings so far- we’ll have to wait and see if she continues this tradition.
In the meantime, what do you think of this hat on this second viewing?
Photos from Getty as indicated

Hat From the Past

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Royal Hats to this day, 30 years ago, when Princess Diana donned a vibrant blue silk Catherine Walker suit and matching wide-brimmed hat with shallow crown for the wedding of friends Camilla Dunne to the Honourable Rupert Soames at Hereford Cathedral. The sharp finishing around the crown sets this hat apart and shows the sleeker millinery style she adopted during the later 1980s (I suspect this one is from Philip Somerville)

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Photos from Getty as indicated

This Week’s Extras

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Last Friday and Saturday (September 28-29), Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko were in Fukui open the 73rd National Sports Festival. The Empress wore this black saucer with salmon bow along with a repeated grey saucer during the visit. 

Princess Annemarie of Bourbon Parma in a small pearl hair embellishment last weekend in Berceto

On Tuesday, Princess Hisako and Princess Ayako visited the Daikaku-ji Temple in Osaka. Princess Hisako wore a grey silk hat with saddle brim and wide silk jacquard patterned hatband while Princess Ayako wore a navy pillbox with large ombre fluted bow at the back.

Scroll to the second photo below to see the small felt hat with kettle brim Queen Sonja repeated on Tuesday for the opening of Norwegian Parliament.

King Carl Gustaf wore his trusty fedora for a visit to Götland this week- this video clip shows the funny moment when a gust of wind carried the hat away (thanks to reader Jesper for sharing this!)

The following new millinery designs caught my eye this week:

Rose gold straw boater with leather floral trim from New Zealand millner Claire Hahn
Wonderful natural straw pillbox with red straw ruffle trim from Australian milliner Louise MacDonald
Periwinkle straw hat with lattice brim and crin ruffles from Texan milliner Bay Willow
Raspberry layered leaf headpiece with beaded accents from Italian millinery brand Gallia and Peter
Simple and classic- British milliner Laura Cathcart in a black straw pillbox with single silk flower of her own design
Adore the lines of this royal blue parisisal beret with stunning rolled-edge bow from Aussie brand Jill & Jack Millinery
Showstopping silk leopard button percher with black crin ruffle and feathers from Irish brand Montgomery Millinery
Giant wicker watermelon headpiece by British milliner Stephen Jones spotted at the Thom Brown 2019 spring women’s collection runway show in Paris. You know, for anyone who needs a watermelon headpiece.

 Royal Hats

Princes Nikolai and Felix with their maternal grandmother and mother, the Countess of Frederiksborg, at the launch of the Countess’ new book

Lovely to see Noriko Senge (former Princess Noriko of Takamado) join her mother and sister on Tuesday for a photo exhibition of Princess Hisako’s Netsuke (Japanese traditional miniature sculptures)

Buckingham Palace making lemonade out of lemons as they clear out the palace for renovation and use some of the displaced objects and works of art for a new exhibition at the Brighton Royal Pavilion

Catching Up Two Royal Weddings

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Countess Anna Therese of Arco-Zinnebe married American Colin McKenzie last Saturday, September 30, in Bavaria.


I’m not able to legally share photos here but there is a great post over at the Court Jeweller about the bride’s royal connections, tiara and other jewels; Dutch royal blogger Netty Liestra has an excellent recap of the entire event here (including a look at all the royal guests) here as does Luxarazzi, with posts here and here.  Finally, there is a good photo gallery of the event here.


Also last Saturday, Nicholas Medforth-Mills (formerly Prince Nicholas of Romania) married Alina-Maria Binder in a Romanian Orthodox Service at the Sfântul Ilie Church in Sinaia. Following the ceremony, the couple rode by carriage to the reception site at Sinaia Casino where they waved to crowds from the balcony. Alina-Maria’s dress was designed by a Bucharest-based designer and includes traditional Romanian hand embroidery and the neckline and sleeves. The dress’ high neckline is contrasted with a deeply cut ‘v’ back and the pleated ballgown skirt extends to a short train.

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The cathedral veil looks like silk tulle and is edged in a leaf patterned lace, which gives some unique texture to the bridal look and frames Alina-Maria’s face in such a pretty way. Her delicate bandeau headpiece looks to be costume- my guess is that as relations are strained between Nicholas and his family (both his mother, Princess Elena, and his aunt, Margarita, Custodian of the Crown, did not attend), Romanian royal jewels were not offered to the couple. This unfortunate situation aside, Alina-Maria’s headpiece brings a beautiful delicacy and lightness to the look that blends beautifully with the veil and suited her petite features very well.


Alina-Maria changed into a silk halter dress for dancing (see last photo below) but retained the headpiece.

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As far as I can tell, no members of the Romanian royal family attended (so no hats to report)-  Nicholas’ only sibling Princess Elisabeta-Karina was one of the attendants and did not wear a hat.
Photos from Getty as indicated