67 years to this day in 1953 and Queen Mary’s return to London from the Sandringham winter break in one of her quintessential draped silk toque hats with feather pouf. Marvelous.
Photo from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats
The Bold, Beautiful and Bizarre World of Royal Millinery
Royal Hats 
Such a dramatic hat style. I’d love to see Countess Sophie try this.
Fun fact: in the post pic, Queen Mary is possibly waving to the public with her right hand, judging by her idiosyncratic palm-up gesture. The Mary wave is not like anything I’ve seen modern royals do, it’s a sort of swashbuckling backhanded rotating twirl. See it in action here at 4:34- 4:37, and 7:34- 7:39. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIW7arfuDIw
Thank you for sharing this fantastic video!
In “The King’s Speech” Colin Firth executed the same wave. Very interesting!
I never noticed that Beth, now I’ll have to re-watch the film and look out for it!
It appears that neither lady is looking forward to the end of their holiday – just like us!
Here’s the other profile shot, showing the trim better.
Embed from Getty Images
Seeing this makes me pleased that QEII, whilst managing to retain a certain style, has allowed her look to move with the times a little more, and not look totally behind the times. Mary dressed the same for 40 odd years, as did the Queen Mum. I think the Queen has managed to make more subtle adaptations to keep thinggs look a little more current.
Good point, JamesB. While she Is not a slave to fashion, she does stay updated.
call me silly but this hat makes me feel like a little girl who found this hat on the attic and put’s in on her head and stands in front of the large mirror , together with oversized shoes and clothes to match of course
Yes, variations on this hat were in my dressing up box too, courtesy of Grandma!
This must have been one of the last pictures of Queen Mary, who died less than two months later. She made her style iconic.