This year’s Cheltenham Festival kicked off yesterday with “Champions Day” attended by three royal guests. Princess Anne led her family in a cozy orange wool coat topped with a chocolate fur hat in a rounded, calot shape.
I appreciate how Anne’s scarves tie the orange coat and chocolate hat together. The shape of this hat is interesting- all of Anne’s other fur and faux fur hats follow square pillbox or cloche shape while this one follows a close-fitting, almost calot silhouette. It’s fine, but not very exciting.
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Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: January 28, 2018
Autumn Phillips wore a black felt teardrop based cocktail hat trimmed with a trio of olive silk camellia blooms, and a mix of open wire and darker olive textured silk leaves.
It’s a great hat for Autumn, who wears percher pieces so well. The hat’s olive trim pairs well with her jacket, the different materials giving textural dimension to the overall look and the colour linking solidly together against the other black pieces. The hat’s trim makes it sing, and the combination of dark hat, green trim and Autumn’s colouring is a winning one. After the recent announcement about the Phillips’ divorce, I didn’t expect to see Autumn at this event but it’s great to see her- she has played an increasingly strong millinery game over the past few years and I’ll miss watching for her hat at British royal family attended events such as these.
Designer: Sally Ann Provan. It is a custom version of the Yoru Felt Pillbox. Coat by Really Wild, blouse by Temperley London, trousers by Jaeger. Styled by Annie Miall.
Previously Worn: This hat is new
Zara Tindall wore a dark blue headpiece described by the designer as a “silk covered headband, adorned with cut feathers and a silk bow.”
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Zara’s colouring makes blue a great colour on her and this deep shade contrasts beautifully with her light hair. This bandeau shape is successfully augmented with the spray of cut feathers which gives wonderful dimension, height and movement to the design. The ensemble is also so well styled, the dotted print on the dress giving some pattern and interest a small but high impact way.
Designer: Juliette Botterill. It is the “Silk Feather Bow Band” from AW 2019. Coat by Guinea London, dress by Rebecca Taylor. Styled by Annie Miall.
Previously Worn: This headpiece is new
That wraps up day one- what do you think of this trio of hats?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall wearing Juliette Botterill Silk Feather Bow Band
Fascinating to see them both in the same hat, also interesting that Eugenie’s is the other way round. (Unless of course it’s not but the photo was accidentally flipped.) And not the first time they have both worn the same hat — see https://royalhats.net/2015/03/08/march-2015-poll/.
Do you suppose they both own the hat, or maybe one borrowed from the other?
Wow, well spotted Maja! i’d forgotten about that hat as worn by Beatrice, in fact I wouldn’t have picked it as the same one.
It always intrigues me how the same hat can look so very different when worn by another person.
Another vote for Autumn’s! Beautiful piece, although it could be worn at more of an angle. I’m surprised that the milliner is calling it a pillbox, though. I notice that this hat features camellias, as did Kate’s from Commonwealth Day, which was also by Sally Anne Provan.
I really love Autumn’s hat. She does percher hats really well, and the black and green here is really stylish, especially the hollow leaves.
I also love Zara’s look. Headbands don’t generally get my vote, but this is so well embellished, it’s more like a cocktail hat. (On a side note, the narrow shoulders of the coat suit her so much better than the pouffe shoulders of her Melbourne Cup clothes. She looks great.)
I’m thinking Anne dressed for the chilly weather, but I really like her clever styling with the colours, even though the hat itself is fairly nondescript.
I absolutely love Autumn’s hat. The color contrast is so great. The olive color is so nice when styled properly. I was so delighted to see Autumn at this event, I have hope now for Ascot.
Zara’s hat looks like a mini-version of Camilla’s feather hats. It’s a nice color, and the overall styling is great, but it’s a pass for me.
Not my preferred choice of hat for Anne, but the styling is done very well here. It feels modern while incorporating things she’s had for years.
Very much enjoying the green popping up on royal hats this week! I love the green and black scheme (it features on one of my favorite hats for HM The Queen during her 2008 visit to Turkey), the trim is amazing, and of course Autumn has worn these cocktail hats so well. Certainly surprised she showed up, but I welcome her and her hats stopping by anytime.
I like seeing Zara with her hair down for something different along with a different style of headpiece, but with her hair this short, this bandeau hat feels a bit juvenile to me unfortunately. The feather trim is excellent and does help keep it from looking too juvenile, but I prefer Zara in other hat styles.
Forgot to say, we saw Andrew Parker-Bowles in a less crumpled and wider brimmed fedora on Day 1 this year (and a few other favorite hats I saw are also in the slideshow):
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And I couldn’t embed this photo, but Mike Tindall looked great in his three-piece suit, except he is missing a hat! (https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mike-tindall-attends-day-one-of-the-cheltenham-festival-news-photo/1211581068) So sad at this missed opportunity.
A great outfit worn by Mike Tindall; as you say, just crying out for a hat. Mike can sometimes look not at ease in formal wear — but here he’s got that “country squire” look down pat!
All three hats look great today!
Anne’s hat was worn 2 years ago, January 28, 2018, walking to church in Sandringham. HQ posted it in February, 2018.
Anne’s coat is at least 9 years old.
April 7, 2011: Liverpool
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Oh, Autumn looks divine in this hat.This could be one of my hat favourites for 2020. The colour is scheme is so unusual but yes, it suits her perfectly. What a thrill to see.
Given that bandeaux can be rather predictable, I love the unusual look of Zara’s.The sprightly lines and texture of the feathers are reflected and emphasized by the movement of her fantastic short blunt bob. The result is refreshingly edgy and fashion-forward. As the bandeau has such a light spring feel, I would love to see it worn in warmer weather when that heavy coat ( which says “felt/furry hat” to me) would not be required.