During our recent look at Princess Anne’s inventory green hats, discussion about her green straw hat painted with feathers threw out a challenge (thanks JamesB!) to find other painted royal hats. So I pass this to you, dearest readers- which royal hats can you recall that have painted embellishments?
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At Ascot Racecourse on July 27, 2013
Visiting an Experimental Farm in Ottawa on July 5, 1982
Photos from Getty as indicated and Andy Clark/Canadian Press via the Windsor Star
Royal Hats 
Hurrah, I may have found one. Hard to tell, but it looks like paint … Lady Helen Taylor at Ascot in 2013.
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The fabric for the dress, worn to Prince Harry’s wedding, was hand-painted in Italy, according to the notes, but it doesn’t appear as if there is any painted embellishment on the hat. Likely this is the best I can do, apologies. I have enjoyed reading the interesting – and sometimes cheeky – contributions of others.
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And a beautiful hand-painted dress worn by Lady Kitty Spencer at the same event. Again, no luck with the hat!
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This is such a stunning outfit. She’s a beautiful woman anyway, but elevated into breathtaking by this bold yet so very cohesive look. Just amazing.
This hat by John Boyd was worn by Princess Diana in Tasmania on March 31, 1983, during the Prince and Princess of Wales’ extensive tour of Australia and New Zealand. I believe the gold edging on the white leaves may be painted. There are better photos of this hat showing more of the gold, but none I could find that could be embedded. The same hat was worn again on April 26 in Auckland.
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Great catch!
I found another painted hat! This was worn by Princess Anne, also. Embed from Getty Images
Do you think this one was actually painted? I’m not sure — considering that the dress appears to have the matching pattern on the neckline, I wonder if it’s just that the hat is fabric-covered.
I believe the crown on this hat is covered in the same fabric as the matching dress. But it certainly has that painted look!
Just came across this lovely hat, which now I look again seems to have had a bit of a spray paint job on the fabric wrapped around it to match the dress. Hadn’t noticed that detail before. Embed from Getty Images
Stretching the theme somewhat, there are outfits inspired by painters…
Mondrian
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Van Gogh
https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2015102627895/queen-maxima-netherlands-kidney-infection-china/?viewas=amp (I’m sure this has been work with a hat, but can’t find it….)
These are great, JamesB. It also brings to mind one of my favourite of all royal wedding ensembles- the Duchess of Cornwall’s hand painted blue wedding coat by Robinson Valentine. It’s exquisite and the sprayed gold Philip Treacy headpiece made for a fantastic pairing.
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Princess Haya in a Van Gogh dress at Ascot, 2014.
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I found this one of Katherine at the 1982 Ascot https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-duke-and-duchess-of-kent-at-royal-ascot-races-news-photo/52118720?adppopup=true
thats a great find!
Indeed- fantastic find!
After searching “paint” here on the blog, I found a good one! For Prince Gabriel’s christening, Princess Sofia wore folk costume from Dalarna, the area where she was raised and the duchy of which Prince Gabriel was named Duke at the time of his birth. The cap is beautifully painted.
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Hi HQ, I’m reading elsewhere that this cap is embroidered, not painted. A rabbit hole search indicates it might be woollen embrodiery (Pinterest has some good examples). There’s a long article here about the folk costumes of part of Dalarna province, although a cap like this isn’t specifically mentioned.
http://folkcostume.blogspot.com/2014/02/costume-and-embroidery-of-leksand.html
Interesting post and some good contributions!
My favorite is Princess Anne’s hat. The painting is exquisite and the shape of the hat , as well as the color, is perfect for her. I imagine that the hat will make another appearance one of these days.
If you look closely, the feathers on this Jane Taylor hat, worn by the Duchess of Cambridge to Ascot in 2015, are splattered with gold paint.
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Do you think the edges of these feathers have had a touch of paint too? Embed from Getty Images
Painted stems, a very pretty effect with the origami flowers: https://royalhats.net/2013/11/01/catching-up-with-the-japanese-empress/
Here’s a view of this hat, from FNN News
As there seems to be so few, i thought would include a near-miss, especially as a) i dont think ive seen it before (its from 2008), and b) theres a painting in the pic! From behind i thought the crown had some sort of paint effect, but alas from the front my hopes appear dashed…
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For the 20th anniversary of the reestablishment of Scottish parliament, Queen Elizabeth wore a purple hat made by Rachel Trevor Morgan. The straw flowers have beautiful, subtle mixed shades that look hand painted.
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Oh I had t thought of painted flowers. If you look carefully here the silk flowers are hand painted. Embed from Getty Images
Fabric flowers are usually referred to as “hand dyed”, though one could argue that hand painted is equally true, for it is done by hand, with a brush.
To me the difference would be in the detail: if the fabric is coloured in different hues, I think I would say “dyed”, if there are details like stems or veins, I would say “painted”.
Feathers are dyed: they have to be immersed in a in a solution of dye, water an acid. But they may also be sprayed, with metallic gold or silver spray for instance.
My only experience with colouring crin is from the 1980’s, at my first employer’s, Jean Barthet. We used spray cans, out of the kitchen window, spaying the window sill at the same time! The result was, mmm …. maybe best left in the ‘80’s.
Crin originally was horse hair, but modern crin is made from plastic so I
don’t think it can be easily dyed.
Thanks for the explanation. I wasn’t sure looking at some of them about technique.
As always, Wies, your shared expertise here is invaluable. I particularly love the image of you spraying crin out the kitchen window!
While trying to briefly search for royal hats with painted trim/details (alas, with no luck), I did find these two photos of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and Prince Eugen of Sweden painting while wearing hats:
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The only other paint-adjacent or paint-connected hat I could think of was this one by royal milliner Stephen Jones: http://outsapop.blogspot.com/2010/07/stephen-jones-hat-couture.html (sorry, couldn’t find an embedable photo of this palette hat). A similar hat (perhaps by Jones) was seen (unfortunately not on a royal) at Ascot in 2011:
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Tough challenge! Princess Eugenie’s is the only one I can think of. It may be something of trend in new designs since HQ has showcased several beautiful examples in her weekly Extras. Hoping we see this one on a royal head: https://www.instagram.com/p/CDYINLCK0vg/
Good memory, mitten Mary!
I really like this hat!
I don’t really have a good memory, but I entered “handpainted” in the search box to find it. Here is another royal-worthy beauty from Extras — painted petals in this case: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_H0vwVJaeO/
Good post. Painting on hats is not easy to do and these examples were well done. I especially love the one on Princess Eugenie.
So the other one I was thinking of was this beaut. However I’m unsure if it’s painted, probably dyed. But the ombré effect does give it a painterly effect doesn’t it… Embed from Getty Images
Probably the same technique but this one looks like someone’s done a spray job on it too… Embed from Getty Images
It certainly has an airbrushed effect. I wonder if this one is hand painted, because the ombre effect follows the heart shape so precisely. I can’t imagine dying the fabric in this shape would be possible!
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I love the way the color tones on the jacket and hat mirror each other!
Also this one, worn in Belgium in 2014. Hat by Jane Taylor.
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Technically, it’s a painted embellishment…….(MrFitzroy ducks for cover….)
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Hah!
Brilliant!
I can’t post pictures, but didn’t Princess Eugenie wear a lovely straw hat painted with leaves in shades of green?
One of the York princesses had a painted hat at a recent (2-3 years ago) Queen’s birthday parade.
Oh yes! Not sure I’ve seen a pic of the other side of this one… Embed from Getty Images
Here’s a front view of this hat- great catch with this one!
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Ooh I wondered if you’d go there!! This one will be a challenge… I immediately thought of this lovely hat worn by Fergie in Canada in 1987, which had a light spray of green and pink. Embed from Getty Images
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That’s a lovely effect that really lifts it above what it would have been with just the flower.