Queen Elizabeth was in Cambridgeshire today to visit Queens’ College Cambridge, open Royal Papworth Hospital’s new facility and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB). Like her grandparents on their first visit to the charity in 1921, she celebrated by planting a tree.
For this day of engagements, she repeated a coat and hat in bright pink textured silk wool cloque fabric. The hat features a tall, slightly forward sloping crown and a modestly sized upturned brim (straw on top, fabric covering the underside) that raises on one side in a gentle sidesweep. It is trimmed on the brim’s lower side with pink and purple silk snakeshead fritillaria flowers and green feather leaves. A slim fabric covered hatband completes the design.
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
The Queen is a master dresser and chose well today- the colour stands out beautifully against the plants and grasses at NIAB and makes me like it more than I did at its first outing! The floral trim is wonderful as is the colour, and I really like the way the coat’s double collar frames the face and balances the width of the upturned brim. If I were to change one thing it would be the crown shape, which is a bit awkward, but it’s a minor issue.
There was recently a discussion in the comments here about how few hats we see with a full view of the dress they were designed to pair with- here’s a rare treat! Of course, this ends up being the one dress that I don’t think is a great pairing with the hat and I much prefer the hat with the coat!
Designer: Angela Kelly made by Stella McLaren
Previously Worn: June 22, 2017
The Queen was joined for part of the day’s engagements today by the Duchess of Gloucester, who repeated her taupe straw formed beret hat with stem.
Designer: unknown. My guess is still Lock and Co.
Previously Worn: July 11, 2018; March 9, 2017; June 18, 2015; June 15, 2015; November 6, 2013; June 19, 2013; June 5, 2012
It’s been two years since we first saw Queen Elizabeth’s pink hat- what do you think of it today on it’s second outing?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
Coming late to the discussion, I think I saw that HM was wearing an at least 12 year old dress today, sans coat and hat. If this is in fact the same dress as Ascot 2007, the missing, matching embroidered coat was truly missed – it’s really unique, and quite beautiful. I know I’m a little off hats here, but I thought someone may find the dress revelation of interest.
July 10, 2019, and June 20, 2007
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Queens’ is my old Cambridge college, so obviously this is big news there, especially as her previous visit was in 2005. The apostrophe comes after the “S” as the college was founded by two Queens, Margaret of Anjou initially and then refounded by Elizabeth Woodville. The Queen is the current Patroness of the college. When there are formal dinners, the first toast is to The Queen, Our Patroness, and the second is to The Queens, Our Foundresses. The current President. Lord Eatwell, who is the man in the gown behind the Queen, was one of my economics lecturers.
I love this colour on the Queen, and I like the hat, but, nice though it is to see it, the dress isn’t really a success.
Thanks for the history, Bristol. It sounds as though Queens’ is very dear to your heart. I love comments like yours and Buffy’s — this blog ends up being about so much more than royal hats.
I agree with MittenMary. Very informative! Thank you for that interesting bit of history. How amazing for your economics lecturer to be in one of the photos.
Lovely all around. I love the bright color of her hat and coat, love the flowers on the hat, love her Maj planting the tree herself. She’s an awesome lady.
I’ve come around to the hat flowers now that I’ve learned they are fritillaria and that they have become endangered in some places due to enthusiastic over picking. That seems the perfect thing to wear to the National Institute of Agricultural Botany. Diplomatic dressing wins again!
So interesting, Buffy!
I like the color scheme and overall this is a fine working hat for HM, but I’m not sold on all of the trim. Unfortunately I really dislike the dress underneath. Fortunately, all complaints fade away when you get such a kick out of that video, with her asking someone to hold her handbag and being ready to plant a tree!
Always a good hat for Birgitte, but it’s gotten a bit hard to distinguish between her pillboxes and berets because she repeats and rotates through them so frequently. I love this jacket in the slate blue and taupe grey with the fabulous upturned collar; I want to see it paired with a brimmed hat sometime.
I like this hat because I love fritilleries and they are so realistic! Like others, I think the textured fabric is a little heavy looking on the hat, but fabric covering is such a feature of HM’s hatter’s style, that it’s pointless to complain!
I quite like all of it, including the dress! the hot pink is marvellous on hm. and the video made me giggle. what a lady.
I also noticed a rather unreported lovely dress/hat appearance, from last friday, via queensjewelvault.blogspot.com, so i hope you dont mind me attaching the link;
https://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/delight-for-dersingham-as-queen-tours-new-village-centre-9075654/
and finally hatqueen, im sure you are v busy with all your lovely postings, but can we expect a hm pink, yellow and purple hat inventory sometime soon, as i love this great point of reference…?
This was included in the “Extras Post” over the weekend. It was a private event and as such, I chose not to cover it but it was brought up in the comments in that post.
Well I still like the colour a lot… but the hat is a bit too much texture still for me. It’s like the blue outfit worn for Trump’s first visit, the cloqué fabric is just quite heavy. The muted jade RTM hat worn for Trump’s second visit shows how much more successful this is when there’s a contrast of materials.
And I really dislike the dress underneath. It just looks poorly made, the fabric is too much for her small frame and the pink neck is too much.
I love the trim on the hat. The fritillary look wonderful with the green and pink. However the dress pattern does not work for me. I think the outfit looks better with the coat on. I do think she may have worn this dress because she was at an agricultural facility where many would be familiar with the flower. I also noticed the Queen wore lipstick that matches the hat and coat.
I can honestly say that I’ve never seen fabric with a fritillary motif. This print makes me think of the textile design of the 1930s and 1940s, which were influenced by surrealism. I think the combination of the dress and hat are pretty strange. And I love that!
This bright pink is very nice on HM, she always looks good in it. Not a fan of the hat trim, it seems droopy to me the way the flowers hang down (are they tulips?) I do like the wispy green bits though. I don’t really understand the dress but seeing it the hat trim makes more sense. DoGlo looks great. Love HM’s insistence on planting her own tree, she’s a professional!
The flowers are explained in the post.
This is a strange outfit. Actually, the hat might be its best feature. The flower is attractive. What I don’t understand is the connection between the hat and the dress, although there is some green in the dress, I guess. (The collar and cuff bands make the dress match the hat and coat fabric, of course, but without those, the connection would be tenuous.) The coat’s double collar is well made, but it looks surprisingly wintry. The hat also seems more suited for winter since the fabric looks heavy, although perhaps it isn’t.
I am not an expert on flowers, but the flowers on the hat and the flowers on the dress look similar to me
That video is lovely. “No, no, I can still plant a tree.” God Save The Queen! She is just wonderful.
She looks lovely in bright pink and her hat is beautiful. It’s lovely how it stands out against the lush, green garden.
I always like the photos of Her Majesty when she is on a joint engagement with another member of her family. How wonderful that today it’s the Duchess of Gloucester! Lots of beautiful, genuine smiles.