During these trying times, many of us are looking for a twinkle of hope. After oggling Princess Margaret’s blingy turban yesterday,this week’s discussion just had to be, dearest readers – which royal hat has the most sparkle?
Photo from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
what an amazing piece of sparkly history!
thanks for the article
I just saw this today and it’s PACKED with bedazzled headpieces.
The Romanov Costume Ball of 1903. In color. Enjoy everyone!
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/07/16/romanov-costume-ball-1903/
Wow!
So glad I checked back to this post. Great find, Shanon!
Fantastic article. There’s an air of impending doom here with such obvious displays of wealth. No wonder there was a revolution.
Here’s a late arrival of sparkle:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/elisabeth-ii-koenigin-von-gb-seit-1953-besucht-in-london-news-photo/541080419?adppopup=true
BRILLIANT! Literally!
Grand Duchess Maria Theresa
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Great catch on this hat- I completely forgot this wedding headpiece was bedazzled.
This reminded me of the taupe straw ringed Fabienne Delvigne headpiece that the Grand Duchess wore and passed to her former daughter-in-law.
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And this metallic threaded straw button percher (it looks like the bow also has some sparkle) Tessy wore for Luxembourg’s national holiday in 2012
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Countess of Wessex
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Zara Tindall
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Princess Marie Chantal
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Some of us had mixed feelings about this event https://royalhats.net/2017/07/03/greek-royals-celebrate-double-milestone-birthdays/, but it did feature a major sparkly headpiece. (Sorry, I don’t know how to imbed the image.)
Great catch remembering these totally over-the-top headpieces. FYI- to embed from Instagram, all you need to do is copy the Instagram URL and paste it in the comment- the rest is automatic
Princess Beatrice
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Princess Eugenie at a 2013 wedding
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Queen Elizabeth
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Lady Helen Taylor
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Another
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Queen Anne Marie
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Getty’s caption reads, “10th October 1930: Princess George Imeritinsky wearing a hat with large horns, part of her costume symbolising ‘Green’. She is taking part in the ‘Pageant of the Superstitions’ in aid of the Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital Maintenance Fund. Costumes are designed by Barbara Cartland.”
Avril Joy Mullens married Prince George Imeritinsky, a Georgian royal prince (batonishvili) of the royal Bagrationi dynasty of Imereti. Not exactly a well known royal house, Prince George was granted an honorary commission in the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards and rose to distinction during service in WW1. He and Avril settled in the UK where he became a well-known Bentley racing journalist and she busied herself with charity work until their divorce, two years after this memorable photo was taken. Some of you will also notice the caption’s other royal connection – Barbara Cartland’s step grand-daughter would, of course, marry into the British Royal Family in 1981 and become Princess of Wales.
But let’s REALLY enjoy this hat.
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Wow!
OH MY WORD. That’s a whole new level of royal hat awesomeness.
This whole post is so fun. Princess Maria for the win.
Anyone else totally surprised Queen Maxima hasn’t blinged out more of her hats?
me too!
there is this one – I think its real diamond bling, but still VERY subtle for maxima
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The original Maleficent Hat! No shade at all. I love Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, and the entire look. This headpiece is next level. I wonder if the costume designers saw this and mimicked it for the movie. Tremendous find Hat Queen!
perhaps more shiny then sparkly, but lovely all the same – beatrice easter 2017
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definite sparkle on sophie – in fact double sparkle in 2012
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zara in a sparkly embellished fedora at cheltenham races 2017
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and from overseas, grand duchess maria teresa with some wintry sparkle on a headpiece at a wedding in 2012
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Great ones! Interestingly two of these have close ‘twins”. First is a similar purple felt hat with jewelled trim on Princess Martha Louise in January 2006. Photo by Mark Cuthbert via Getty
Second is Queen Mathilde, back in April 2006, in a similiar heapiece to the Grand Duchess’ also by Fabienne Delvigne
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And Queen Silvia has another take on those Fabienne Delvigne headpieces, attached to her white turban. Photo by Patrick van Katwijk/Corbis
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Great finds! A winter wedding seems like the perfect occasion for hat sparkle.
Here’s another one from back in the day… Princess Diana on William’s first ever engagement. With some serious, and somewhat incongruous gold braid on her titfer. Embed from Getty Images
Big sparkle on a small surface area: Embed from Getty Images
Great one! Here’s another view
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Another case of a narrow band of sequins with big impact:
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Princess Beatrice
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Queen Beatrix
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Duchess of Sussex
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Queen Elizabeth
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Empress Masako
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This is, as they say, rather thin gruel…..but it appears both Diana and Fergie are sporting diamond (or at least sparkly) hat pins or other small ornaments on Remembrance Day 1987.
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MrFitzroy’s first thought was The Queen Mother’s affection for wearing brooches on her hats in the 30’s and 40’s. Those images seem surprisingly difficult to locate in search (nice catch SirLancelot!). Here in 1976 she wears what can be assumed to be a Cairngorm topaz brooch holding a feather, It’s unfortunate the image isn’t a little clearer to be able to see what all else is going on there!
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Queen Sonja
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You beat me to it, EM! It’s just a narrow strip of sequins, but the sparkle is visible even in the more distant Nobel ceremony photos.
It’s hard to see but the entire underside of the brim is sequinned all the way round. Embed from Getty Images
Princess Nobuko
Princess Nobuko
So this is a dig in the archives. For Princess Alexandra’s wedding the rather fabulous Princess Marina wore an outfit of shimmering gold with a hat covered in sequins, to which she added a brooch, because why not! Only Marina could get away with it. Alas, I can’t find a close up colour pic, but someone else may be able to… Embed from Getty Images
wowzers – now thats a sparkly outfit. love it. she certainly had class. good style never goes out of date.
Yes, weirdly difficult to find a good photo of this hat, but it’s certainly been one of my favorites in the history of royal hats! And it certainly should rank at the top of this sparkle list. Thanks JamesB!
You can see it shimmer in action here:
Fantastic!
Good post today – a bit more challenging to be sure.
Not the best example below, but my brain is malfunctioning these days. Should other examples come to mind, I’ll add them.
HatQueen, as always, you add “sparkle” to our lives. Many thanks.
June 5, 2012: part of the Diamond Jubilee Celebration
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Great catch, Jimbo. It reminded me of 2 other hats in Her Majesty’s closet- the white textured Rachel Trevor Morgan and the pale yellow one with ruffled trim she wore in Oman in 2010.
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Speaking of that 2010 Oman visit… searching for the yellow hat made me uncover two other hats worn that same visit. The gold trim on the blue boater will be familiar to many but until today, I had completely missed that the famous pink swirl’s bow has a bejewelled center, different from the gold jewelled hatpin right beside it!
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HQ, did you notice an absence of the horizontal gold roping between the buttons in the 2nd photo of HM’s blue(?) boater? Interesting evolution to a rarely seen ensemble.
Yes, it was simplified at its second appearance in March 2012.
princess margaret also used another hat/headdress i think on mustique, which hadan amazing amount of real sparkle – with the use of real diamonds, using the large and glorious bejewelled brooch elements of her poltimore tiara, which had masses of sparkle. unfortunately, i cant find a getty image, only this pinterest pic from pre-getty corbis….. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/449656344022972437/
like her mother and grandmother, there are other turbanesque styles of hat with real jewels attached too, but the photos seem rather scarce
hm the queen mother used jewels to adorn her hats, including amongst others her pearl and diamond brooch from the huge bejewelled greville bequest, and also this diamond maple leaf brooch, i believe gifted from her husband king george vi prior to their 1939 canada visit. here she is wearing it to a football match of all things (i cant imagine any of todays royals doing such a thing today – ok, maybe maxima!
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and of course queen mary wore many sparkly-trimmed hats – including turbans (eg george vi wedding), although unfortunately the photos i have been able to find lack impact.
i do wish this real gemstone brooch trimming trend would return (im sure maxima has added a sparkly brooch to a turban, and i think maybe sophie do wessex may have too…?)
the only example i can think of, of hm the queen adding a brooch-like trim was for the slovenia visit in 2008, although im sure there may have been more back in the day…
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looking forward to the other sparkly offerings…
Didn’t Kate wear that maple leaf on one of the visits to Canada?
The first hat I thought of was Eugenie’s at Ascot a few years ago.
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dont remember seeing this one on eugenie – good find.
yes – the maple leaf brooch was left to the queen, who as well as wearing herself has loaned the brooch to both camillla and kate for their canada visits (albeit not on their hats – yet!).
Great catch, indeed, Eliza! Eugenie has two saucers, also from British milliner Nerida Fraiman, with similar jewelled trim, worn in January 2018 to church in Sandringham and to the July 2015 Goodwood Races
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Max has indeed used the brooch on hat strategy: Embed from Getty Images
gorgeous!
That’s the most sparkly one I remember! I wish more royals put diamond brooches on their hats.
Lady Sarah Chatto did on one of her saucer hats for Ascot
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Those may be the stars from her wedding tiara?