There was a time when a stylish hat always included a veil. Thinking about the recent veils we’ve seen on royal hats (mostly as decoration than face covering) has piqued my curiosity, dearest readers- which royal hats carry the largest swaths or most statement-making veils?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
I’m absolutely fascinated by the huge selection that people have found. But I do think there are two different distinct types. There are hats with veils, ie netting that covers at least some portion of the face, and there are hats that use veiling as a trimming material, but not a veil. In my mind the two aren’t the same thing at all! Veiling used as a trim is simply a choice about what type of material might look good with the hat, whereas a proper veil that covers any part of the face is immediately bringing something extra to the equation. Both equally fascinating, but to me not really comparable with the other category.
You make an interesting observation, Bristol. Perhaps the thing to note is, over the course of 50+ years, veils have morphed from an expected, regular feature on a hat (something to cover the face) to a material used for decoration. It’s a fascinating evolution.
Don’t think anyone has posted this one yet. Not a candidate for the biggest veil, but one of the most dramatic:
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Princess Lilian 2005 Sweden National Day
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Princess Sofia at Christening of Princess Leonore 2014
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Princess Claire 2008 Belgium National Day
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Princess Claire Belgium Memorial Service King Boudoin 2008
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Incidentally, Princess Victoria wore the same hat in 2008 & 2009 https://royalhats.net/2015/01/23/who-wore-it-best-january-2015-poll-3/
Two veils in one photo! Queen Sofia and (then) Princess Letizia 2011 Cambridge Wedding.
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How could we forget Princess Claire’s white veil explosion?! That’s a strongest candidate for greatest statement by a veil!
It’s certainly the pouffiest!
Princess Lilian was so elegant! I like the slight ombre effect of the veil.
Lady Kitty Spencer Berlin 2018 in a very interesting use of veil material:
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Lady Kitty at the Sussex wedding 2018 in one of my very favorite hats
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Charlotte Casiraghi 2016 Monaco National Day
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Charlotte Casiraghi Prince Albert and Princess Charlene wedding 2011
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Princess Margaret 1963 RAF Colitshall
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Princess Margaret May 1956
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Queen Elizabeth at Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones wedding 1960 (sorry, I couldn’t find great color photos)
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In the top picture, Lady Kitty Spencer’s black hat is trimmed with crin, not veil.
It looks like veil material over the black percher portion. When I enlarge it, I can see the lines of veil, but my eyes could be deceiving me 🙂
AH- I see it now! It looks like a sequinned veil is overlayed on the base of the hat. Interesting, indeed!
Several years ago, Philip Treacy did a few collections with wired veil brims. I think this must be one of the more unique uses of veil on a royal hat.
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We have to include Crown Princess Victoria’s hat from Oscar’s christening!
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GREAT catch! This reminded me- the Swedish royals have had numerous statement veils at christenings of the newest generation. I particularly love the blue guipure lace and veil headpiece from Philip Treacy Queen Silvia wore for Prince Gabriel’s christening. And Princess Madeleine’s classic features carry a birdcage veil so beautifully.
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Here are my big guns- two statement veils on headpieces worn by Alexandra Brabourne (granddaughter of the late Earl of Mountbatten) and the late Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester
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As always, you all have brought forward so many interesting hats to look at again!
In looking through my archive- I was surprised to see a handful of statement veils on hats worn by Princess Caroline:
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That’s a lot of hats with veils, especially for someone who doesn’t wear very many hats!
It’s so interesting how some royals have lots of hats with veils and others we don’t see here at all. I couldn’t find any veils on Queen Mathilde’s hats, Queen Margrethe’s hats, Crown Princess Mary’s hats, lots of other royals. That seems odd.
2 for Crown Princess Mary. 0 for Queen Margrethe and Queen Mathilde.
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Queen Margrethe has had a few. Not many, but a few!
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And while on the topic of Monaco royal hats, I think this veil deserves inclusion!
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It’s been really bugging me that there’s a super sized, super veiled hat lurking in here somewhere.
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Of course- Princess Isabelle of Liechtenstein!
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A lot of the veils are on smaller hats. I hadn’t thought about this before. The only royal I can think of who wears a lot of larger hats with veils is Princess Alexandra. They aren’t over her face but the veil still adds a lot to the hat.
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These are great choices Joanne. Princess Alexandra is so lovely and classy, especially in that dark green beret in slideshow #2.
Wonderful photos of Princess Alexandra……Princess Michael also doesn’t shy away from big hats with veiling…..perhaps it’s a Kent thing!!
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Nor do her daughter, Lady Gabriella, or her daughter-in-law, Sophie!
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Is the black veiled hat worn by Lady Gabriella above, at Angus Ogilvy’s funeral, the same one worn by Princess Michael in the second embed in the slideshow?
The first hat is lovely, especially with the two types of veil/netting. Really pretty!
love this hat from lady gabriella in 2016
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That might be the largest veil on a modern royal hat! No surprise it’s by Philip Treacy.
That is a huge veil on a modern hat HQ! Well spotted sirlancelot. I can’t help but notice how much Lady Gabriella resembles Princess Marina in this photo.
These are great finds, running from romance to glamour, charming to silly, well-integrated to afterthought.
Here’s one that takes the veil on bandeau to an absolute minimum: Embed from Getty Images
wow that is minimalist! tres chic though – for me these simple black styles have echoes of old-school glamour. love it!
And on the subject of a veil being part of the design or an afterthought – here’s two from Birgitte that show how you can trip up….
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And finally……just a few of the Duchess of Windsor…..because how could one not? (First photo was taken at a Millinery Show no less!)
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I was going to have a hunt for Wallis too, veils were an essential part of a hat then, and she always looked so chic in them.
Veils were indeed an essential part of a hat in 1951, when the first photo below was taken. It makes me wonder if the veil contributed to the aura of mystery around her!
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Princess Beatrix and Princess Irene……their veils really stole the show……ba-dum-bum
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A few more of Queen Elizabeth’s veils that hadn’t popped up in comments yet…..
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She is definitely her mother’s daughter in the blue!
These are the other two that come to mind for me… maybe Jimbo can can help us fill in the blanks?!
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A young Queen Beatrix, well veiled when arriving for a visit to Luxembourg, 1981. The veil really makes the whole ensemble!
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Can’t embed this one, but Queen Elizabeth while still Princess Elizabeth, in a very rare full face veil on a visit to Paris in 1948.
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/princess-elizabeth-signing-the-gold-book-of-the-arc-de-news-photo/56231516?adppopup=true
The shape of that hat, and the large veil are fascinating!
This one won’t win for ‘most’ veil…..unless it is most charming! Anne Marie while still a very young Princess of Denmark.
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I have to agree — this one is a charmer.
A veiled twofer…..Queen Alexandra as Dowager, at the Chelsea Flower Show — with her sister Dowager Empress Marie of Russia.
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1919! I find really old photos like this to be fantastic!
This is a recent addition to the Duchess of Cambridge’s millinery collection. She wore it to the 2019 on Remembrance Sunday almost a year ago.
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I thought that maybe all of Kate’s veiled hats were from Philip Treacy (the black one above and the pink one someone else posted here) but she also has this one from Jane Taylor. I think the Philip Treacy veils work better and I had not noticed that before! This has been another really interesting discussion!
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How could I forget, the hat she wore for George’s christening also has a veil. It’s another one by Jane Taylor and the veil is OK but not as ‘wow’ as the veils on the Philip Treacy hats.
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I agree- the Philip Treacy veils have a certain finesse that makes them really set off a hat. Kate also has a lovely green straw hat with double veil overlay and side pouf made by Sean Barrett (who made Downton Abbey’s hats) that is really lovely.
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Here’s a very interesting take on the veil on Mette-Marit,
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This is such an interesting use of veil that gives such texture to that hat’s brim. A similar one that comes to mind is this pink felt design with gold veil overlayed on the crown.
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And just because I’m procrastinating on things I should be doing, we can go back another generation to the very early 20th c.:
Queen Alexandra with a fairly snug looking veil and Another of Queen Alexandra
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Queen Maud of Norway
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This is such an interesting discussion! I think veils can look either like a dropped-on afterthought or completely make the hat. I can’t think of examples but I’m sure one of you can!
Afterthought vs. makes the hat. Designs by Robyn Coles and Gina Foster.
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I agree! I LOVE the second hat on Bea. The veil is perfection!
Veils can also make a hat a hot mess when they are piled up with a lot of other stuff or they can make them super chic.
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I thought at least one of Camilla’s big hats would have some veil but the only ones I could find are surprisingly messy.
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This one is somewhere in between- not an afterthought but not exactly making the hat!
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This made me laugh! It’s so true that some veils looked dropped on and others just make the hat sing. Here are two like that from Zara’s Ascot hats
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This one is a long standing favourite for Anne, and certainly packs plenty of veil! Embed from Getty Images
You just beat me to this one! It’s a beauty (and yes, it’s still being worn. I think her other other significant veil is the one on this wide brimmed black hat.
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For someone so famously no-nonsense Anne does love a surprising amount of veil.
The yellow peril certainly didn’t skimp…
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And if you look carefully this lilac number has discs sewn into the veil at the back!
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I forgot about the purple pillbox with paillettes sewn on the veil!
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Indeed!
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I (surprisingly) can’t find an embeddible version of Princess Anne at the Cambridge wedding, but her hat on that occasion had some mighty strange veiling on it — not quantity to be sure, but just oddly arranged. See a photo here under the heading “PURPLE MAJESTY” about halfway down the article:
https://people.com/celebrity/royal-wedding-coverage-family-guests/
Here’s the hat you mention, worn for a 2015 garden party. You’ll notice that the veil is lime green and contrast with the purple hat.
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Thanks for pointing out the lime green of the veiling, HatQueen, that wasn’t apparent from the photos that I previously saw. It actually makes me like the hat a bit more. Green and purple is an odd color combo, but one I have come to like over the years.
Here are two noteable veils on hats worn by the Duchess of Kent in 1982 and 1985
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I really like the floral pillbox (?) on the right!
of course I mean left. doh.
Princess Diana, St Albans, Hertfordshire, 1989
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I do not remember seeing this hat before. I loved Diana’s veiled hats in the early 1980s. They were so beautiful with her hairstyle and were fun and sophisticated at the same time. I was a teenager and thought she was the most glamorous woman. So many of us wanted to dress as elegantly as she did.
This discussion is looking for “the most” veil. But I think these hats all prove that small veils can also make very large statements.
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You make an excellent point, Anne. It’s not always the largest veil that provides the greatest impact or, as you say, makes the largest statement. As such, I’ve amended the original question in this post.
The veils you share illustrate exactly what I was thinking about when writing this post- these early 1980s hats on Princess Diana significantly covered her face. Today, we mostly see veil used to decorate a hat, not cover the face. It’s an interesting switch.
In this group of Diana’s hats, as well as in the many of the Queen Mother’s previously posted, there are “token” veils that only cover the forehead, some that cover the eyes but stop at the nose, and some that cover the entire face, and that distinction does not seem to be related in any way to the style of the hat itself. We have seen many hats where bows, flowers and feathers have been changed or removed, and of course the decision to use one veil length or another is a matter of style like anything else, but I wonder if there have been any where the original veil was replaced with one of a different length (shorter or longer) or removed entirely. (I don’t have any examples — just thought I would throw the question out there!)
Diana lost the veils on these two hats:
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I don’t have time to look for more but there are, undoubtedly, lots of veil alterations!
Thank you, HatQueen, I had forgotten about the blue hat. Incidentally, not only the hat in that photo was remodeled — the dress was a former maternity dress that had been altered for regular use.
Regarding the tan hat, that’s the one Diana was wearing when she got totally drenched in a downpour during a walkabout on her first trip to Wales. I don’t know enough about hat materials to know how wet they can become before being unrecoverable, but Diana clearly liked that coat and wore it many more times — I’ve often wondered if the entire hat had actually been replaced rather than just removing the veil. (Pure speculation on my part!)
I love all the early 80s veils on Diana. But not all of them covered her face!
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Not the most perhaps, but certainly a statement use of veiling…
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Oh my. This feels very star trek formal.
Oh, that is wonderful!
She wasn’t the only one… here’s Queen Fabiola in 1997
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And a more modern take on Queen Letizia for The Order of the Garter service in 2019!
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Ooooh, I just love this so much!
In general, I’m really pleased with the resurgence of the veil on hats that we’ve seen in the last couple of years. I think they add a level of formality and interest that can be very pleasing, and luckily, the net veils we seem to see now don’t obscure the face (or maybe more importantly) the underlying hat design.
Shanon found a lot of good ones, including two favorite hats of mine from Princess Haya!
To go along with Shanon’s find of Queen Beatrix in 1998, Beatrix also wore a veil-swathed hat at the wedding of Princess Anne in 1973:
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Also seen in one of the photos with Haya was one of my all-time favorite Anne hats:
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Máxima has worn some veiled hats, beginning with one of my favorites:
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Sarah, Duchess of York, sporting a veiled cocktail hat at Harry & Meghan’s wedding:
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Lady Helen Taylor sporting a good amount of veil at two royal weddings:
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The Japanese imperials wear the most veiling (and do it very well) at funerals (sorry, photos aren’t embeddable):
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/princess-yuriko-of-mikasa-chief-mourner-crown-prince-news-photo/621044614
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/princess-hisako-princess-tsuguko-and-princess-ayako-of-news-photo/869343080
But I did find this photo of Princess Hisako in this ivory white veiled pillbox (again, not embeddable, argh):
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/japanese-princess-ayako-the-third-daughter-of-emperor-news-photo/1052437888
Jake, I bow to you! That first hat of Queen Beatrix is gloriously huge!! How on earth did you find that? You’re amazing! I just took the easy ones, knowing you and everyone else would “bring it!”
Anne’s first wedding had a lot of interesting hats I first saw in a book years ago, so they have stuck with me every since haha.
Not the biggest veil of course, but for a small one making the right impact, Empress Michiko’s was perfect on her and for the occasion at Fabiola’s funeral in 2014:
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More noble/royal-adjacent than traditional royal, but Lady Alexandra Knatchbull wore an interesting veiled bandeau back in 2007:
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Another larger veil for HM on a hat I know has been brought up at some point in the past year (by Jimbo?):
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This one that can’t be embedded from a 1948 visit to Paris when she was still HRH: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/princess-elizabeth-signing-the-gold-book-of-the-arc-de-news-photo/56231516
And of course, we can’t forget the Chelsea Flower Show veils!
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A more up to date one from QEII. This is what happens when veiling gets turned into erm, a panscrub.
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And this is one from her mid years. She doesn’t have that many veiled hats (certainly when compared to her Mother), but this is one of the most heavily veiled I think.
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Pot scrubber, indeed! What I find so interesting about these discussions is how some royals (or their milliners?) gravitate to very specific trims. As you say, Queen Elizabeth wears few veils. I had to go back 7 years in my archive to find the first one.
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But when she didn’t go there, she didn’t skimp. This one could have been entered for most bows too…! Embed from Getty Images
Holy cow! The black veil with the tiara is mind blowing! Powerful, glamorous, regal all at once!
But how I wish I could unsee the dark socks with the yellow suit!
Autumn Phillips 2015 Royal Ascot
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Queen Beatrix 1998 wedding Prince Maurits and Marilene van den Broek
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Countess of Wessex, Commonwealth Church Service 2020
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Queen Silvia, Italian State Visit November, 2018
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CP Victoria 2012 wedding Hereditary Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg
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Princess Haya Royal Ascot 2009
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Once again, Princess Haya nailed it ! I miss her so much.
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Princess Diana Remembrance Day Services
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Duchess of Sussex: 2020 Commonwealth Church Service
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Duchess of Cambridge 2018 wedding Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank
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Duchess of Cambridge 2008 wedding Peter and Autumn Phillips
https://royalhats.net/2016/11/11/inventory-duchess-of-cambridges-black-hats/
Interesting- Diana had another black felt top hat/bowler hybrid shaped hat, also with a veil. If you look at the front curve of the brim, you’ll notice the two hats are different.
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One of my favourites is the one on this midnight blue teardrop percher by Philip Treacy that Meghan wore last November. I love the way the veil is gathered together on the top of the hat, and lays so beautifully over it. So pretty.
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Queen Mary has a proper widows bonnet under her veil.
Are you thinking of this one?!
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I think of veiled hats I immediately think of the Queen’s Vatican visit (in the post-tiara world which of course is sad on it’s own).
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Sorry I have to include just one with the tiara because tiara + black veil is so striking.
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A lot of the Vatican ladies seem to do only veil (no hat), but of course sometimes you get a mantilla over a peinata comb- does that sort of count as a fascinatory-hat? If so you get Q. Sofia with major veil and peineta.
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Queen Mary and QEQM also wore veils over hats at the funeral of George VI, but it’s difficult to tell whether QEII and Princess Margaret are wearing hats or just veils.
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I love the bright green veil on QEQM
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Several times I think the queen has wrapped veils around hats on visits to Arab nations, though they don’t always integrate well into the hat design.
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So lots of things that are veiled but maybe only the first one counts as a veiled hat in the sense we mean here.
Incredible find laemperatrizgmailcom!
Thanks! And I forgot to put my name- I’m also Shannon (sometimes Shannon C), so sorry for the weird moniker. Also, I just want to reiterate that I think there should be more tiara and veil events…..
Oh yes, Shannon C! Your nom de plume was fun to type in. I agree QEII’s tiara and veil are incredible and there needs to be more of that! I’ve already decreed yours are the winners of this challenge. We’re all just going for second and third place now 🙂 ha ha
Just to add to your great find Shannon C, here’s Queen Silvia visiting the Vatican in 2015. She seems to be wearing a headband with her veil:
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Technically, the following two aren’t hats, but tiaras attached. I wanted to share as I’ve never seen them before and think they’re spectacular:
Queen Fabiola 1960 tiara and veil
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Princess Grace 1959 tiara and veil
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Yes!!! Those are fantastic! Especially since Princess Grace wore tiaras relatively rarely, it’s wonderful to see her with tiara and veil. And I love Queen Silvia’s take with the headband. I honestly really think that having a headband or hat or peineta to anchor the veil really helps, in a lot of the pictures of our royal ladies at the vatican, the veil is just draped flat over the head with nothing clearly to secure it (I mean I assume there are bobby pins or something but no structure). In a lot of cases, the veils wind up looking very flat or often very crooked (there was one picture of Q. Mathilde, who is always so well-put together and gracious looking) where it looks like her veil is about to slide off her head sideways. So kudos to Silvia (and QEII) for finding a way to incorporate the traditional veil into a piece of structured headgear.
I think the very bottom picture of Queen Elizabeth has the most veil. But I think her mum had the most veil in her closet!!
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Goodness! That one with QEQM wearing a hat with HUGE spots makes me thing we need a category for “most spots” or “largest spots”!!
I have been thinking that one must be coming up soon!
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The hat you chose for this is exactly the one I would have gone for.
But then there’s this one… Embed from Getty Images
This such a brilliant find! I think it may be the one to beat….