Continuing our look back at the July 9, 1999 wedding of Princess Alexia of Greece and Carlos Quintana, we turn our attention to hats worn by members of the Norwegian and Swedish royal families. Queen Sonja topped an iridescent lime suit with a picture hat in slightly darker green straw. The hat featured a shallow, rounded crown and a wide brim with dowturned edge and was trimmed with lovely lime silk orchids.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Queen Silvia also wore a hat much larger than the styles we see her favour most often today. In dove grey straw, her picture hat’s round, flat crown topped an oversize mushroom brim. The hat was simply trimmed with a wide grey silk hat and and brim binding. With her grey ensemble, the overall look oozed elegance.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images:
Crown Princess Victoria was just 22 at the time of this wedding and, I suspect, not yet a customer of couture hats. Her slouchy brown stitched hat followed an hourglass shape (popular at the time) with upturned Kettle brim and bow on the side.
Princess Madeleine wore a pink sinamay hat. The hat’s boater style crown was covered in pleated rows of crin and the cartwheel brim, in a relaxed crin ruffle overlay. The hat’s classic shape in light crin embellishment made a sweet and feminine choice for the teenage princess, even if the trailing bow down the back was a bit twee.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Some of you have commented on the large number of picture hats at this wedding and the two added here were among my favourites. What do you think of these hats?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
Queen Sylvia looks fantastic here. That hat is so beautiful and elegant, and she carries it off very well.
I can’t enlarge on the comments already made about the hats, but I have enjoyed seeing all the royals 20 years younger. Look at Haakon! He looks so young and same with Phillippe! This whole series has been a real treat! Thank you so much HQ!
Sonja is another royal who wears green well (she has the best emeralds), but the shape of this brim was a little severe; it’s upturned version in Brazil was a much better choice (thanks mcncln for that find!). Once again, the hat wins but the outfit is better left behind.
One of my all-time favorite looks for Silvia! The huge but simple hat paired with that open elegant collar was a stunning combination, one I would love to see again.
Victoria’s hat isn’t a bad shape, but the taupe color is not flattering for her, and neither is the boxy jacket. Madeleine could get away with this hat today if she removed the bow that hangs down past her shoulders on the back.
Mcncln, I’d be willing to bet that Sonja’s hat is actually one and the same, but reworked so she could be more visible, as Bristol suggested. Either way, it’s fantastic. Your description of Silvia’s entire ensemble was impressive and impeccably worded. You must write for some fashion magazine or the like. I always enjoy your take on the given topic of the day. As for the Princesses’ hats, I really like Madeleine’s pink one, and Victoria’s brown number, although not a wowza, looked nice on the cute young Royal.
Just a quick programming note- our regular weekend “Extras” post will return next weekend, after we’ve completed our look back at this amazing wedding!
Queen Sonya: a great look for her. A classic wedding guest hat, paired with an understated elegant suit, in a signature colour palette for Sonya. Yet I think she bettered the look 4 years later in 2003, on a state visit to Brazil. Same suit, paired with new jewellery, shoes, bag and hat, all a level up in my view. I swear the lilies trim and hatband is the same on both hats. But I do especially love to see Sonya in the rounded brim of the 2003 hat.
Embed from Getty Images
Queen Silvia: This hat shouldn’t work – but it does. While I keep wanting to say that the hat is too wide for someone of her height, and sits too low — it’s equally clear to me that any narrowing of the width would destroy the overall balance of the ensemble. Silvia is blessed with gamine proportions which allow her to combine stylistically different elements in one outfit, which would look like a hotch-potch on most people. Starting from the top and working down, there is the stiff angular symmetrical geometry of the hat, next to the asymmetrical “unmade bed/ crumpled paper” effect of the jacket, next to the gossamer-like chiffon drapery of the skirt. The potential shortening effect of a superwide brim is offset by the low scooped neckline, and the inverted curve of the skirt hemline. And the way the collar indirectly mirrors and balances the horizontal effect of the hat suggests to me that this outfit is the work of a stylist who REALLY knows their stuff.
This is one of those outfits that is probably TOO memorable to be worn again; and although the hat is timelessly elegant, it would be quite a challenge for Silvia to wear such a wide hat with more conventional clothes. But I’d love to see it worn by Princess Charlene.
If I was a betting woman, I’d put money on that being the same hat but with the brim turn upward. Fascinating!
I also love Queen Silvia’s hat. M main quibble is with CP Victoria’s choice of shoes. I thought open toed shoes were frowned upon at royal weddings. They also see inappropriately casual fog the occasion. Her purse as well as Princess Madeleine’s also seem too business like for the occasion. I guess maybe that was okay 20 years ago. I much prefer the trend of smaller, elegant clutches we see most Royals, carry today
I don’t think there’s any issue with open toed shoes- that’s another area where some media loudly touts that as an issue (particularly with younger royals) but I’m quite certain it isn’t.
These hats are all so of their time. Well actually maybe it’s more the outfits are. From
Sonja’s shiny suit to Victoria and Madeleine’s boxy affairs, thank heavens things have moved on. So praise the lord for Silvia, that is such an elegant look, she looks fabulous. Her hat, as is Sonja’s are lovely, me suit them both so well. I can’t say the same for the Princeses, but then I don’t think 22 years old me would be judged very well these days, so it’s all good!
It occurred to me that maybe being a wedding guest is the perfect occasion for royal ladies to allow their own personal preferences free rein and go for the big hats which obscure their faces, since unlike most of their public appearances, it doesn’t really matter if the public can see them! Both Queens have lovely hats here.
That’s a good point, Bristol. But I keep thinking about the people who sat next to them and behind them. I suppose guests at a royal wedding would have the manners to not complain. Anyway, I agree that both queens look lovely.
I like Victoria’s and Madeleine’s hats the best. The others are just too too.
However, the thing that strikes me the most about these outfits, besides the enormity and the vivid colors of the hats, is the whiteness of the shoes. No one wears white anymore—before or after Labor Day!