Inventory: Princes Anne’s Red Hats

Today we’re diving into Princess Anne’s closet to look at all of her red hats. To my great surprise, she has only added four in this colour scheme in the past 40 odd years:

1.   2.   
Designer: unknown
Introduced: Dec 25, 1984; Apr 3, 1988

3.    4. 
Designer: unknown
Introduced: June 18, 1996; Jan 27, 2019 

What’s most interesting to me here is not so much the styles, as the few number of hats in this hue. Maybe the Princess Royal is not such a fan of red? While the first two are well into their third decades of wear, they continue to make public appearances, usually around Christmas. The first design has not aged particularly well (as one may expect for a pyramid of pompoms) while the second has nearly fit in with the beret percher styles that have been fashionable over the past decade. The most recent acquisition, a deep scarlet velvet bucket hat, feels less stylish than the beret and while the third hat has not been seen in a long while… it wouldn’t surprise me if it magically appeared at Ascot next year.

What do you notice about this group of hats? If you were to add a red hat to Princess Anne’s wardrobe, what style would you choose?

Photos from PA; Max Mumby/Indigo, Tim Graham and Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images

10 thoughts on “Inventory: Princes Anne’s Red Hats

    • Agree with you, mittenmary, about the color of the bucket hat. I actually like the bucket hat! Cannot imagine that anyone but Anne would wear it. But a far better choice would be the trilby that you shared. You are right— Anne could get a lot of mileage from this hat.

    • Great suggestion on the trilby style for the Princess Royal mittenmary! That is a fabulous hat shape on her and the red/scarlet color would look great.
      I think she actually looks quite lovely in red, but perhaps it’s not her favorite color. Of the 4 hats shown, the beret percher is my favorite. The color and style both look so striking on her.

  1. I’m really surprised to only see 4, especially when Anne’s hats can often last her half a century. The beret first (possibly…) worn at Eugenie’s christening really has come full circle and looks current now. And I’m always a sucker for a wide brim.

    So this got me to thinking, and I don’t think of Anne as a very red person, it’s not a colour she wears often at all. Two exceptions are this one, which is part of a team uniform…
    Embed from Getty Images

    Abs then of course going right back to the early 70s is this old favourite. I almost wish she would bring it back for a laugh!

    Embed from Getty Images

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