Today we wrap up our look back 20 years to the July 9, 1999 wedding of Princess Alexia and Carlos Quintana with a view of the remaining royal guest’s hats. We’ll start with Grand Duchess Josephine, who wore an ecru straw boater variation. The hat’s tall, flat crown was wrapped in a folded straw hatband that tied in a bow at the back, centered with a straw rosette. A subtle curve in the brim (upward in front, downward in back) gave some movement to the design.
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images|
Embed from Getty Images
Queen Noor of Jordan (the eighth queen in attendance, for those of you counting!) wore a beautifully embroidered while silk scarf with scalloped edge.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia wore an ivory sinamay hat with tall crown and upturned kettle brim edged in pale peach silk. Overlapping figure eights in ivory sinamay and peach silk with a large trimmed cream feather completed the design.
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, as was her title then, topped her cream suit with a navy straw boater variation with tall crown and short brim, simply trimmed with a wide navy silk hatband.
Princess Miriam of Bulgaria wore an ecru straw brimmed hat with what looks like a crin overlay.
Princess Rosario of Bulgaria wore a fantastical gold lattice straw Philip Treacy hat with fluted crown that extended into a wide, gently sideswept brim. The hat, which linked to gold embroidery on the waist of her Valentino skirt, was lavishly trimmed with gold silk flowers and leaves and sinamay twists, all studded with a mass of gold arrow trimmed feathers.
Princess Carla of Bulgaria wore a purple sinamay teardrop layered percher hat trimmed with painterly silk flowers in dark burgundy. It’s a hat with deep richness I think I’d really like if we could better view it’s detail (and see it with a less jarringly contrasting, more harmonious ensemble). I suspect Queen Margarita of Bulgaria also attended this event (bringing up the queen tally to nine!) but I’m afraid, photos elude me.
That concludes our look back at this wedding and the 26 royal hats worn to it. Some of you have commented on the prevalence of wide brims- what else do you notice about this particular group of hats?
Photos from Getty as indicated; LANGEVIN JACQUES/CORBIS SYGMA; ORBAN THIERRY/CORBIS SYGMA; BEIRNE BRENDAN/CORBIS SYGMA
Royal Hats 
Grand Duchess Josephine looks quite elegant; I do wonder if the hat is turned a bit as the trim often isn’t placed directly on the back.
Queen Noor’s headscarf hit the right tone here; it’s a lovely alternative to a hat that suits her well.
Katherine’s hat and outfit are very much of this time; with some new trim the hat may be worn today (although the shape still says late 90s/early 2000s to me).
Margarita’s hat is fine, but nothing special, and I don’t care for her all white skirt suit.
Miriam looks nice, but again nothing to shout about.
Rosario, on the other hand, was definitely one of the best dressed guests at this wedding, and she could still get away wearing her entire ensemble today! Such an amazing hat, and I agree with Shannon that this would be a great color for Camilla. It’s a shame we don’t get to see much of Rosario in hats because she knows how to wear them well, especially large brims!
Carla’s hat has much potential, but her outfit (like most at this wedding) is best left behind.
In common I love Rosario’s hat! I’d love to see something like that on the DoCornwall… That rich gold color is fantastic and so is the lattice.
Yes!! Good pick for the Duchess of Cornwall! She would look amazing in that color and style.
I also think the style is similar to what Lady Gabriella Kingston would wear.
This was an amazing series of posts! Thank you. I am struck by all the queens at this event…I wonder if any other royal wedding has had more than eight queens? Also, wouldn’t a companion post on Royal Jewel Vault blog covering all the jewels and tiaras worn to the reception (assuming pictures exist) be an incredible compliment to this? It would be like a tv series crossover!
This series is an absolute treat! Does this wedding hold the record for the “most senior royals in attendance” ?
I suspect Charles and Diana’s had more. If you go onto the “Royal Weddings” tab and look at King Felipe and Queen Letizia’s wedding, I think they had more also.
Just loved this whole elegant series!
As I am partial to picture hats and boaters, seeing these photos was a special treat.
Thank you so much.
HatQueen, I’d like to join with others in thanking you for this amazing look back at what appears to have been the most extraordinary gathering of hatted royals in modern times. Eight queens! (Or perhaps nine, if someone can find a photo.) This has been a special treat, even more so now that we know that you took the time to prepare it for us to enjoy while you were on vacation. I’m sure we will continue to find much to discuss in this series while you continue to relax!
The slight hourglass shape of the crown of Princess Rosario’s keeps me from absolutely loving it, but that seems like a quibble for such a gorgeous hat.
Like HatQueen, I think we’d appreciate Princess Carla’s more if we could see the detail. How intriguing that she is the only one in a percher. Were they just coming into fashion then?
I thought I recognized then-CP Philippe in a photo with CP Victoria, but it looks as though neither the Belgian nor the Dutch queens attended? In any case, this was a SERIOUSLY royal wedding! Thanks so much for the excellent series, HQ!
1. Thank you so much HatQueen, for an outstanding past 5 days of millinery Christmas in August. American weddings don’t even hold a candle to what you just presented us.
2. Question: Do you have access to other sources of information pertaining to your impeccable descriptions, or are you relying merely on what you see from the available photos? You tell us more about each hat than most of our eyes can see.
3. Of this group today, Rosario wins hands down. Also, Noor is a beautifully elegant Royal.
4. The 1st photo shows Charles talking to Josephine. Could he be complimenting her, or is it improper to do so? 35 years ago it was suggested to me (by none other than a priest!) that when commenting to a lady about her appearance, it would be proper to say “you look beautiful in your hat” as opposed to “that hat looks great on you.” Thoughts on etiquette?
Thanks, Jimbo! As for other sources… I usually just write what I see. Reading millinery descriptions of new hats over the past 6 years has certainly provided a good education! I have and continue to learn SO MUCH from milliners every day.
These posts have been put together with even less research than usual, I’m afraid I must admit. I’m currently on vacation and only had time to prep the photos for this wedding series before I left. Each night, I’ve been looking at the photos again and simply writing what I see! It’s been a far less organized writing process than usual and I’m relieved to hear your enjoyment of the posts was not compromised!
The gold lattice straw Philip Treacy hat is quite overwhelmingly fantastic! Princess Rosario seems to have arrived from an alltogether different (fashion) planete than some of the other Eastern European princesses.
I find Princess Alexia’s wedding dress much more becoming when seen in movement than on the still pictures.
So true about Princess Alexia’s dress looking better in motion! Queen Silvia’s floated floated prettily, too. There should always be a slight breeze at weddings, not enough to threaten hat stability, but just to highlight the drape of the gown and dresses.
Mittenmary, I’ll keep this in mind. If ever one of my daughters decides to marry, I’ll order a gentle breeze for the wedding day!
I hope to do the same some day!
love Rosario’s hat, a shame she didn’t bring back that colour in her clothes