The Duke of York, Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank visited the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital yesterday to open their newly redeveloped Stanmore Building.
The engagement has a very personal connection to Princess Eugenie, who underwent scoloiosis surgery at this facility when she was age 12 and, very fittingly, was officially named as the hospital’s patron this week . For this visits, she repeated the black leather bandeau headpiece with ruched center we saw her first wear at Christmas.
A bandeau headpiece was a great choice for this visit- a visit that’s more informal in nature but the first by its new patron. As on it’s first outing, my main issue here is placement- it just seems too far forward. Indeed, the bandeau and coat dress aren’t the most harmonious pairing but it looks here that the visit was designed to be low key and this headpiece does the trick.
Designer: Emily London; it is a bespoke version of the “Ellen” design.
Previously Worn: Dec 25, 2018
It’s nice to see Princess Eugenie on such a personal visit, and to see her new husband Jack along to support (his first official engagement, I do believe!) a facility that is clearly, of great importance to her. In such circumstances, hats hardly matter.
Photos from Getty as indicated
@HatQueen.: This was a lovely visit. Really nice to see Princess Eugenie doing an engagement with The Duke of York. Such a shame the monarchy will not allow Eugenie and Princess Beatrice to be working Royals.
The bandeau headpiece is fine if not very noticeable. It would have been nice if she had chosen one that was white or with colour as others have suggested.
As someone who has scoliosis (although I’m lucky not to be suffering from much pain at this point in my life), seeing how Eugenie highlighted her own condition at her wedding and now through this patronage makes me glad to see her actively engaged in this work.
Moving to the bandeau headpiece, as mittenmary and Matthew said, it’s almost invisible unfortunately, and like Matthew, I didn’t realize she was even wearing it until this post was published. Overall everything works together well and was suited for the event, but even for me, calling this a hat ends up seeming like a stretch (not a criticism of HatQueen’s decision to feature it, only a criticism of the low visibility of this headpiece, just to be clear!)
No offense taken! Had it not been a very slow royal hat news day, this likely would have been moved to Saturday’s ‘extras’ post.
….and we appreciate that, HatQueen. Better an inconspicuous royal hat than none!
I have to agree with mittenmary about the invisibility of the bandeau. I saw a single (kind of small) photo of this event yesterday in my Google news feed, and have to admit that I didn’t even realize she was wearing a hat! I do agree however that in this case the personal nature of both the visit and the patronage overshadow any criticisms we may have of the headwear! And yes, it was Jack’s first engagement, that was said in the press item I saw.
It’s a nice enough piece, but almost invisible against Eugenie’s hair. Maybe cream to match the coat or, better yet, a punchy color pop would be better?
Is the princess an official working royal now, or was she chosen because of her connection to the facility? In any case, I hope this portends more hat-wearing appearances for her!
No, she’s not a working royal now. This event was because of the personal connection.