On Sunday, Princess Akiko of Mikasa hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan at the opening of the Ara Guler Photography Exhibition at the 800-year-old Tofukuji temple in Osaka. For this occasion (which followed last week’s G20 Summit, also in Osaka), Princess Akiko wore a hat that departs from her usual millinery style.
The cream straw hat loosely follows an oversize cloche shape with a few variations- rim at the top of the wider-than-usual crown, upturned kettle brim- and is trimmed with an ice blue hatband that links with Akiko’s dress. What’s notable here, I think, is the large scale. While it does have the slight air of ‘overturned flowerpot’, I’m always happy to see an Imperial princess experiment with new millinery shapes, scale and trimmings so this gets smile and nod from me.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: July 20, 2015
What do you think of Princess Akiko’s hat?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
Akiko is lovely. So feminine, a princess of a fairy tale. The hat suits her and I’d love to see her wear this kind of millinery more often.
Wow! I certainly didn’t expect such a fabulously modern hat from this quarter.
Akiko’s gamine features and slender build are perfect for the crisp clipped angles of this hat style – but that suit is so loose on her 😦 –all she needs is a Audrey Hepburn suit by Givenchy to complement it. ( Though I know full well that that isn’t going to happen)
Black buttons or accessories would look really sharp against the white, too.
I must admit I was distracted by the splendiferous hat of the mustachioed gentleman in the back of the second picture (first slideshow).
Pss Akiko’s hat is, however, youthful and fun, without being Too Much.
A fun nod to the 1960s, and Akiko is able to wear this particular shape better than most people IMO. Brava!
Love the experiment in new styling, although I’m not so keen on the type of hat that enforces the wearer into a head tilt to see out from under!