Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful words yesterday. I’m humbled and inspired to keep our millinery conversations here at Royal Hats going! We’re going to do this today with a look at Queen Margrethe’s purple hats. At the start of this millennium, the Danish queen had several in rotation:
Since 2000, she has added four additional purple designs. Here they are, in order of introduction:
1.
2.
Designer: unknown (likely Per Falk Hansen)
Introduced: April 16, 2000; April 16, 2000; January 15, 2012
3.
4.
Designer: unknown (likely Per Falk Hansen)
Introduced: January 15, 2012; March 15, 2015
I’ll admit surprise that there are just four purple hats currently in Queen Margrethe’s wardrobe (so surprised that I triple checked my archive to make sure I’d not missed any!). This group certainly covers a range of shapes and shades, each with standout details – brims on #1 and #3 and trims on #2 and #4. This inventory also brings up an interesting question about hat #4: do you notice how close it is in colour and shape to the hat in the pre-2000 row (the photograph is from a 1992 visit to Norway)? I can’t shake the suspicion that it might have been updated with black feather and sequined trim and trotted out again in 2015.
What do you think of this quartet of purple hats?
Images from Getty as indicated; Tim Graham, Antony Jones, Antony Jones, Chris Jackson, and Elisabetta Villa via Getty
Royal Hats 
QM’s purple hats are all magnificent and a reflection of her joie de vivre!
Undated: Queen Margrethe enjoying life as she and Henrik could do so well!
I have to agree that purple is one of Margrethe’s best colors, if not the absolute best one — I love all of these hats, even #2. And do agree that #4 appears to be the older hat remodeled. (My mother always said that if you keep something long enough, it will come back into style.)
Also, Jimbo, the slate-blue hat looks lavender to me too — we must have the same monitor! ;->
This post begs the question: is there a purple hat Queen Margrethe would not look fabulous in?
I love that they’re such different shapes, and yet all fun and flattering. I was going to single out a favourite, but it turned into “all of them except #2”. Nothing wrong with #2, it’s a charming hat, it just doesn’t seem quite as “right” on her as the others do. Or maybe it’s the camera angle. Who knows.
Try this alternate view of hat #2
Embed from Getty Images
Oh, that is nice! You can see how it ties in with the outfit much more clearly.
There you are then, it’s official: no purple hat has yet been discovered in which Queen Margrethe doesn’t look great.
I immediately thought the exact same thing about the early brim-less beauty to the reworked, be-feathered 2015 turn-out.
I found on Pinterest a photo of the Queen wearing a happy combination of the 2nd pre-2000 with #3. Alas, I can’t post it.
Here’s a delightful hat from Prince Henrik’s 60th birthday bash.
June 11, 1994
Embed from Getty Images
Sorry, I forgot to include this “bucket list” hat, presented to us back in 2014 by our own Hat Queen. I LOVE this suggestion!
https://royalhats.net/2014/04/16/birthday-of-queen-margrethe-2/
I love it, too!
Ditto!
Remarkable hat!
I stared at this hat for a while yesterday, deciding whether to include it or not! It’s the same hat Queen Margrethe wore to Prince Pavlos and Princess Marie Chantall’s wedding and while it looks purple here, it was actually a slate blue.
OOPS! So sorry, HQ, it really looks lavender to me. Feel free to drop my comment.
No harm done! We’ve all seen how hats can appear as different colours in different lights. It’s not uncommon for me to bring up several different photos of a hat to study before declaring it one colour vs. another. And, we can have shades that straddle the blue-purple spectrum.
Love the purple !! it is a color that suits Her Majesty very well. Perhaps the choice of hats that all royal women wear is a small way of them letting their personality and personal choice show in a small way in the highly structured world in which they live, where everything they do is planned down to the minute. So if they wear a hat the looks like a flying saucer or what Princess Beatrice wore to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, more power to them ! Even the hats worn by the public while at Royal Ascot are fun to look at 🙂 Please, please keep posting.
Cheers for your “Keep calm and carry on” attitude, HQ!
I agree with Shanon: Margarethe looks great in all shades of purple. And it seems very plausible that #4 is a retrimmed old hat. I always think Margrethe looks best in brimmed hats, so #1 is my favorite, but that trim on #2 is lots of fun.
Hoping Margrethe will appear in a new purple Mathilde Thoe Førster design once she starts making public appearances again!
Agreed! I’ve really liked Mathilde Thoe Førster’s designs for Queen Margrethe and look forward to lots more!
I agree with you and JamesB that #4 is a reconfigured hat from 1992. They did a brilliant job making it “new again.”
I’m actually surprised she doesn’t wear purple often as she looks incredible in that color. The top row, second photo made me gasp at how lovely she looks. I quite like the brimmed hats on her, although she can pull off any of these styles.
I love her sartorial chutzpah! Number 1 is just mental, only she could do it.
4 is totally that hat returned. And successfully. My absolute fave is 3 and I love how she goes there with a brooch under the brim.