Zara and Mike Tindall rounded up today’s royal attendance at the first day of racing at Ascot Racecourse. Zara topped her cream and black dotted dress with a cream straw beret percher hat trimmed with silk roses and black dotted veil. A slim straw box completed the piece at the back.
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It’s a shape and scale we’ve seen often on Zara but one that combined beautifully with this charming dress, drop earrings and beautifully styled hair. The hat is beautifully balanced on its own and I adore how the dots on the dress were linked to the hat with the use of that dotted veil.
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Designer: bespoke Juliette Botterill. Dress is ME+EM (Polka-Dot Mini Dress in Cream/Black). Styled by Annie Miall.
Previously Worn: this hat is new
Mike Tindall wore a beautifully shined black silk top hat. Some of you will remember a story we heard about this hat being accidentally sat upon at a past Ascot- it’s great to see all seems to have been repaired!
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What do you think of Zara and Mike’s hats today?
Stay tuned for a look at the nonroyal hats that caught our eyes today at Royal Ascot!
Images from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
Zara’s hat is very very pretty. Just don’t like the dress on her.
I think this is one of Zara’s best looks in ages (both hat and dress). The hat looks so fresh and I love the veil. I think maybe an extra inch and a smidge on the dress would have been better but that’s a quibble. Looking forward to seeing what she has in store for the rest of the week.
Zara looks great – and she seems to have turned a corner, fingers crossed, with her hair. So often in the past it’s just been scraped back into a tiny home-made bun. Her hair and hat are a beautiful combination for Ascot Day 1. The dress is okay and looks summery, but, as is so often the case for me with Zara, I wish it was an inch longer. She is one of my favourite royal (adjacent) hat-wearers. She has the knack and a face that seems to be able to wear anything! Looking forward to more from her this week.
I think it’s important to remember that Zara is not a working royal and has her own private life, family and career. As such, I find your “turned a corner… with her hair” remark very unfair.
The hat is gorgeous, but her hair is absolutely fantastic here.
The bits of black veiling really elevate this hat from “nice” to “fantastic” and give it subtle contrast that I love. I like the idea of the polka dots on the dress, but the way the large dots are combined with the tiny ones feels a bit awkward to me, primarily on the skirt.
Swooning over how good the swoop of the brim is on Mike’s top hat, not to mention his great tie. He has always managed to clean up well in ways that continue to surprise me (maybe not surprise, but certainly get my seal of approval!).
I like her hat, but don’t think it goes with this dress at all. The dress bottom is casual. The dress bodice is more dressy. In all for me, this is a flopped look with the hat getting an honorable mention.
I don’t always like Zara’s hat choices but for some reason I like this one. As someone else said, she and Mike always look like they would be a lot of fun to hang out with.
In some photos, the dress looked less cream and more white, and the dotty veiling didn’t show up. Looking at these shots, I can see that the dress and hat really do go well together after all!
Zara looks fab. The soft dress looks great on her, really flattering and no doubt very comfortable in the heat today. The hat is a standard shape but lovely. Those two look like so much fun to hang out with!
Zara and Mike are consistently one of the best turned-out couples at Ascot (and any other race meeting). Love love love love! The dotted veiling in the hat just adds that little bit of detail to bring it all together and yet won’t look out of place if she wears it with another dress later. And her earrings are “dots” too 😀 I hadn’t heard about Mike’s hat being sat on! Yikes! I wouldn’t have thought that could be repaired! Thank goodness it was because thanks to Chicago Chuck we know how hard the good ones are to come by!
The story of Mike’s hat can be read here
I love Zara’s hat today, but I think the dotted veil is what makes it really stand out; otherwise it would feel very similar to lots of others she’s worn. I really love the stark contrast in color and shape that is added by black dotted veil.
I really like the aqua hat on the lady beside Zara. I would like to see Zara wear more styles.
That’s Zara’s best friend Dolly Maude. Her hat is from Bridget Robbins who works under “The Cotswold Milliner” label. It’s fab, isn’t it?!
What a handsome couple! Mike’s hat is fantastic – I think he’s competing with Prince Edward for “most dapper.” I absolutely love Zara’s hat. It is a common shape we’ve seen on her, but it works so well. I love the 3 roses and the polka dot netting peeking out. Just an outstanding look.