to thirty-one years ago this week and a state visit to Brunei where Queen Elizabeth wore a large blue hat with woven brim and braided straw trim by Frederick Fox. We usually associate this familiar hat with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002 but this piece actually made its first appearance, four years earlier.
September 18, 1998 in Brunei:
June 4, 2002 for the Golden Jubilee Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral:
On display at the 2003 “Hats And Handbags” exhibition at Kensington Palace:
Photo from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
The hat is nice, but I really love that white coat she is wearing in Brunei. Very textural.
QE has so many hats that have an asymmetric crown even though they are worn squarely (level side to side, no tilt or angle) . Do any other royals do this anywhere near as often? What’s the aesthetic concept here? So often I find myself wishing they were not lopsided – I don’t understand this look.
This is what this blog has done to me: I’m noticing some unevenness in the braided band and the woven brim, apparent in the last photo. To me, this is part of its charm — we know it’s handcrafted. Am I getting too fussy? Perhaps a certain milliner will share her expert opinion. But it really is a splendid hat, an ideal color and silhouette for HM.
Timeless, beautifully constructed hat in a wonderful color. What’s not to love?
It is a lovely hat, I’ve always been a fan. But I do find it most odd that she didn’t have a new one for the service. Perhaps that’s why she changed into the red one afterwards.
Say what you like about Angela Kelley, but she absolutely went to town for the diamond jubilee with a fabulous new wardrobe for it.
Such a beautiful shade of blue on a fantastic hat! It’s great to be able to see so much detail in that exhibit photo. (Although I continue to find it surprising that the Golden Jubilee Service did not merit a new hat.)
A comment on the Brunei photos — it’s interesting that HM is carrying a white handbag on that occasion when she carried a darker one on all the other occasions when she wore this ensemble. I’m sure it must have been because she knew she would be donning the white robe for the mosque visit.
That’s a wide brim for HM!
The close-up photo from the 2003 exhibition gives great detail- truly a wonderful hat.
The Queen also wore it in 2000. Just for heck of it, I threw in two other occasions where the hat was not worn. One of them was when the Queen Mother celebrated her 101th birthday. I’ve always thought what a classy way of paying tribute to her mother by NOT stealing the lime light. What a fantastic blue color!
July 7, 2000: Westminster Abbey
May 21, 2001: Chelsea Flower Show
August 4, 2001: Queen Mother’s birthday
Embed from Getty Images
So interesting- thanks, Jimbo!
Looks like nobody but QEQM wore a hat for the 2001 appearance. But at 101, she had the right to wear what she liked!