To celebrate Princess Anne’s 70th birthday on Sunday, we’re diving into her millinery closet for an inaugural inventory of her hats. At the turn of the millenium, the Princess Royal had just two green hats in rotation, both introduced during the previous decade (and both repeated within the past nine years years):
As we’re all aware, the Princess Royal has a knack of reintroducing hats from decades past- in July 2013, she brought back a straw picture hat painted with peacock feathers by John Boyd that goes back to at least 1982 and on December 31, 2017 she attended church in a deep forest green velvet cloche that dates to at least December 1984:
Since 2000, Princess Anne has added eight additional new green designs to her wardrobe. Here they are, in order of introduction:
1.
2.Embed from Getty Images 3.Embed from Getty Images
Designer: unknown
Introduced: June 21, 2000; March 12, 2002; June 18, 2009
4.
5.
6.
Designer: unknown; Amy Morris-Adams; unknown
Introduced: December 25, 2011; June 22, 2017; March 9, 2018
7.
8.
Designer: both are Amy Morris-Adams
Introduced: April 4, 2019; June 20, 2019
I’ve held off tackling Princess Anne’s inventories because they require going back 40+ years to catch all the hats we still see her wear today (the longevity of her wardrobe is clearly one of her superpowers). This first group of green hats surprised me. There are less here than I imagined there’d be- perhaps green is not Anne’s favourite colour but when you think about how many events/engagements she attends (509 in 2019), this is a proportionately small collection. This group also covers a wide breadth of different shapes- there are not two designs close to being alike. Sure, some shapes look more dated than others but it also indicates a more sophisticated ability to carry off very different hat styles that I suspect I’ve underestimated.
As for favourites- I like the new additions from Amy Morris-Adams and hope their collaboration continues. I also love the early 1980s green straw John Boyd picture hat painted with peacock feathers and would love to see it worn again (although, not with it’s original matching outfit!).
So… what do you notice about this group of hats? Which designs do you think suit Anne best?
Photos from Allstar Picture Library Ltd via Alamy; Fiona Hanson/PA Images, Joe Giddens/PA Images, Tim Graham Photo Library, Max Mumby/Indigo, Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty; Steve Davies via Shutterstock; Max Mumby/Indigo, Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty
Royal Hats 
And a green dress for one of her official 70th birthday portraits. Did I mention we share the same birthday?(Not the same age though!)
Embed from Getty Images
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SANDRA!
Thank you. We’ve just stepped back up an alert level so the planned long weekend at a holiday resort for my birthday has been cancelled. However, I’m sipping champagne and we’re just about to Zoom chat with our daughter in Melbourne, a city that’s been locked down since March, so not too shabby! xx
It’s the same suit seen in #5, so it dates back at least to 2002!
Sounds like a great day in spite of the change of plans, Sandra. Hope you get your resort weekend next year
This looks green in the photo … I’ll bow to HQ’s superior knowledge on the shade though. 2018 Not Forgotten Association Garden Party at Buck House:
Embed from Getty Images
It might look green to some in this photo but it’s actually an ecru/ivory.
May 13, 1974: wonderful vintage video of Anne’s green ensemble, brim down this time.
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/princess-anne-horse-doublet-destroyed-after-breaking-leg-news-footage/810056612
It’s much better with the brim down. I like the top-stitched band.
Pinterest has an AWESOME photo of Anne wearing this green hat by (John Boyd) at Ascot, but alas, it’s not enbeddable.
June 18, 1969: Royal Ascot
Embed from Getty Images
It actually surprises me that a member of the Royal Family would have to make her way through the crowd like that — you would think there would be some security person clearing the way for her!
How about this green number, from from grand opening of the Dexter Paper Mill!
July 12, 1973
Embed from Getty Images
You’ve prompted me to have a bit of a hunt. Oh there are some corkers here!
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
And whilst this one may feature a free hatband rather than a green hat, it has one of my favourit ever HM outfits, so no apologies!
Embed from Getty Images
Don’t forget this one, here worn in 1982
Embed from Getty Images
I think this has always been my issue with Anne’s style. She may have been funky in the 70s, but she was still wearing a lot of the same styles in the 80s, and they didn’t last. I was a child of the 70s, forced to wear my older brother’s flares in the 80s, so I think I just had such an aversion to 70s clothes back then!
And a bit more up to date. It may not be much of a hat, but she still
Defied the dress code with some green feathers at the Wessex wedding in 99. Embed from Getty Images
a couple more from the archives..
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
I’m saving the turban above to be included with grey hats as a milliner from John Boyd tells me it’s more grey than green! Interesting, as she always has worn it with this greeny-grey and blue plaid coat.
I love Princess Anne in the pillbox, fedora and picture hats. (2 & 3 top, 4 & 8 bottom)
Happy Birthday to one of the most hardworking and underrated members of the Royal Family. She’s such a gem.
One of the UK TV channels, ITV, made an interesting documentary to mark PA’s 70th birthday: “Anne: the Princess Royal at 70” (available on the ITV Hub outside the UK by using a VPN) and in a segment discussing her style (from minute 23), it shows her attending an event at London Fashion Week 2019 as President of the UK Fashion & Textile Association where a director states that one of her favourite colours is green.
I think her hairstyle suits larger hats, in general with larger brims so, in addition to the pillbox – and dark shade of green – in the 2nd photo, I really like her looks in the 3rd photo and then #2 and #8.
Apologies, it was London Fashion Week 2020.
It’s a great ANNEctote (!!) nonetheless!
If green is one of her favourite colours and she has just 8 hats in this shade added over 20 years, I suspect we’re going to find, overall, that Anne has fewer hats than many of her counterparts. Not good news for milliners but an interesting royal fashion approach.
Thank you HQ for this look at Anne’s green hats. She’s often under-rated and/or overlooked in her choices. I’m not sure she has much interest in her ‘royal dressing’ but occasionally she gets it nicely right. I particularly like hat #2 on her.
I’d love to see this one dusted off (if she still has it). I’m sure she could wear it with as much elan today as in 1978.
Embed from Getty Images
#4 hat really seems to suit her. The pale green, the texture, the casual fedora-like shape, the absence of the tall crowns she favored for a while. It’s a hat that flatters her but could be worn by lots of different people.
It does suit her. Good thing, because she’s worn this hat many times!
She’s not afraid to ring the changes is she. I love the fact she’s still pulling out hats from before her children were born, of this lot I really love that painted feather hat (As an aside.. I was pondering earlier if painted hats could become a new interesting hat feature thread, I can think of at least a couple more…)
What’s also great is that in recent years she’s added in some updated styles too, the slopes brims (8) and large flower fascinators (3) really suit her and bring her up to date.
There are so many articles now about how Anne is a style icon, which just goes to show, if you stick at something long enough, it comes back into fashion!!
JamesB said: There are so many articles now about how Anne is a style icon, which just goes to show, if you stick at something long enough, it comes back into fashion!!
I have 1970s lightshade that came with the house that has done exactly this – we’ve dithered for so long about what to replace it with, it’s come back into fashion!
I suspect like many royals, Princess Anne goes hatless to many less formal engagements nowadays, more’s the pity. As for this selection, I rather like the large, softer hats – the very first one you show and no.2, which isn’t a soft hat, but is softened by the wide folded velvet hatband.
When she last wore the first hat in 2011, she wore it with the brim left down- it gives a slightly different look to the hat. These are not my favourites but I’m so glad they have admirers!
Embed from Getty Images
love love love princess anne, so thankyou hq for this.
i know she has little regard for fashion, but she is a very handsome lady and wears clothes very well. aside from the relaxing clothes, i feel she looks best in classic tailoring – theres a green suit, a navy-trimmed white suit, a lovely soft pink outfit worn at westminster abbey in 2013, and i think my favourite looks on her have been all black (albeit at funerals/memorials) where she looks absolutely polished to perfection – i’m looking forward to the black inventory especially, as there are some great black hats…
for me she particularly suits a cocktail hat #5, along with the sharp saucer hats #8 (theres a great white one from a few decades ago), and the trilby styles #4.
as for the other green ones i love the velvet cloche and #7 – want to see these again very soon …
MANY HAPPY RETURNS to hrh!!!
Also worth including here are a trio of casual wool newsboy caps and a waterproof bucket hat that we see Anne wear often at equestrian events (particularly the Gatcombe Horse Trials held yearly on her estate).
Embed from Getty Images