While Princess Anne famously has worn some hats over several decades, she also mixes pieces. Her ecru suit with tangerine silk binding and crossover blouse has been paired with three different hats:
Look #1: With a cream close-fitting percher hat edged with tangerine-backed bumper brim raised to flying bow tails at the back worn June 13, 1987 for Trooping the Colour and March 30, 1988 to open the Royal Easter Show
Look #2: With an ecru straw pillbox with visor brim around the front and layered tangerine and ecru folded bow in the back worn for the Founders Day Parade at Chelsea Royal Hospital on June 5, 2008
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Look #3: A pumpkin straw modified cloche with angled brim, wide silk ruched hatband and posy of straw lilies studded with amber feathers by Walter Wright worn April 17, 2012 in South Africa
Which hat do you prefer most with this suit?
Photos from Foto24/Gallo Images and Foto24/Gallo Images; and Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
I like #1 and #3 because the color in them draws your eyes up and away from the suit. I can’t see the color on the second one from the front.that well. Surprisingly, I agree that all of them could be worn again today. Please Anne, find a new outfit to wear them with!!
I like all three, although #3 is perhaps inching a little into HM’s hat territory.
No hat this time, but still wearing the suit 28 years later! (3rd photo, can you read HM’s mind? She’s thinking about upping Anne’s allowance.)
June 5, 2015: Women’s Institute
Embed from Getty Images
I like all three, but especially the solid tangerine hat, #3. Could it possibly be the same as the hat below, but revamped? Perhaps not.
June 16, 2009: Royal Ascot
Embed from Getty Images
I just spent a while looking at the two side by side, especially the 4th photo in your gallery above, and my conclusion is, yes, it could be.
I think so, too! The change in trim is an improvement. The wrap at the bottom of the original posy was clunky.
Great spotting, Jimbo!
Weighing in late… it certainly seems like the same hat. Well spotted!
MrFitzroy votes for number three, with the caveat that the very clunky trim should be slimmed and streamlined a bit. Especially from the side, it looks a bit like a badly folded napkin with feathers sticking out of it. A little finesse and it would be lovely.
The main question has to be when did Mrs.Thatcher start wearing Queen Elizabeth’s hand-me-downs….and did the queen know this was happening ??!!
bit harsh re baroness thatcher comment – she was always a very smart lady
Sorry SirL, was meant to be tongue in cheek,, not political jab. Apologies if it didn’t read that way.
I remember reading during the time when Mrs. Thatcher was in office that she was such an admirer of The Queen that she did emulate her style to a certain extent. It’s possible that was just some imagined thing for the shallow newspaper/magazine entertainment sections, but may be true.
That’s interesting Matthew, thank you for the comment….it never occurred to me — as I think of Mrs Thatcher’s signature style as being so elegant in her carefully tailored Aquascutum suits, with her trademark coiffure substituting for millinery most of the time — that the purple ensemble just seemed so incongruous and unexpected. But it totally makes sense that in later years when she was more out of the public eye her style would evolve and change.
Embed from Getty Images
On a side note, Sarah gets the wooden spoon for the outfit that has least stood the test of time!
I think I”m in the minority here — I like #1 and #3 best about equally, and do not care for #2 because I think the back of it with that bow does not mesh well with Anne’s customary hairstyle. (And unlike Kate and some of the other younger royals, I can’t imagine Anne changing her hairstyle just to look better with a hat!)
Regarding the brim of #2, maybe it isn’t a visor, maybe it’s actually a halo hat where the halo has fallen down! But seriously, #2 would have also looked quite nice with that visor piece removed entirely — maybe with that change I would have liked the back better.
Definitely Look #1
The 2nd hat looks the best in my opinion.
#1. The suit is not particularly appealing to me.
#2
What a beautiful hat!
Actually I like all of these! I do like the suit, and all of these complement it very well. They are all well conceived and executed, and I think could be worn today to the right occasion without looking too dated. They all tie in to the suit in terms of colour, and indeed the third hat looks as though it must surely have been made for the suit, but on the other hand, we know Princess Anne’s penchant for thrift, so it would be interesting to see if she has worn these hats with other things.
I agree! Sometimes she doesn’t always hit the mark but each of those hats was very attractive for the period. And as you said, she can recycle for many years so I too wonder what else she has worn those with.
I also think the earliest hat still looks quite modern, but my favourite look, bearing in mind I don’t really like the suit ensemble, is the middle hat. It is a quirky shape, and also might look modern with a different outfit.
I’m rather a fan of the first one, it’s a fun shape and I think could be repeated today and not look dated actually. I like the second one until she turns around and you see the brim is a visor, which is a bit puzzling!
I bet we’ll be seeing this outfit again before too long…
agreed. (and love di’s hat btw)