I couldn’t choose between two hats with uniquely woven crowns for today’s post so… why not share both?!
First is a lovely lavender brimmed hat with lattice woven crown the Queen wore for the Founders Day parade at Chelsea Royal Hospital on June 10, 1982 and a visit to RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire on June 21 of the same year.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Second is a slate blue hat with straw kettle brim and crown woven with tubes of the same blue floral silk as her dress in an open basket weave pattern. She wore this Frederick Fox design on November 18, 1983 on a visit to India with a matching Hardy Amies dress.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Images from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 
I really like both of these hats. And the colours chosen for the particular locations help make HM standout in a crowd.
The second hat’s crown seems to be woven around the ‘spokes’ that lead to the central top ring. Ingenious. I particularly like the way the strips used for the weaving are themselves gently folded along their length to give depth and detail.
The texture on both of these hats are wonderful, and as others have commented, particularly that photo from straight above showing the entire crown, which caused me to look much more closely at all of the close-ups of that hat to see how the fabric strips were applied. I would have loved to see a video or photo array of that particular hat under construction.
Thanks, HQ, for today’s bonus treat. This makes for an even nicer Friday. I imagine it will get more challenging to find unfamiliar hats, the closer we get to Hat #70!
The beautiful lavender hat was worn for another hospital visit later the same year. The following brief video is fantastic at 1:12 as HM grabs (catches a relay?) some flowers while riding past the fan in the street.
October 11, 1982: Bathurst, Australia
With such an important, high-visibility trip to India, one would think that a Fox/Amies collaboration would makes its debut there, but the queen actually wore it 4 months earlier, at home in England. The photos are mediocre quality at best.
July 5, 1983: Redditch, Worcestershire
https://redditchstandard.co.uk/news/snapshot-day-queen-came-redditch/
Sorry, I forgot to add:
May 19, 1983: Horse Guards Parade
https://www.alamy.com/hm-queen-elizabeth-ii-and-hrh-princess-anne-watch-the-trooping-of-the-colour-at-horse-guards-parade-london-england-june-1983-image340767991.html
The first hat reminds me of the hats the Queen and Princess Margaret wore when they were very young.
Thank you for the extra treat today, HQ! I have a soft spot for lattice and woven textures, so these are right up my alley. The lavender is especially good. Without the unnecessary additions of flowers or veil, the lattice is really highlighted. A bolder print in the second design would be too distracting, but this one is just subtle enough to work.
These are both lovely, but that fab top view of the second one inches it ahead for me. That is so intricate and a really unusual technique.
For the first one I agree the brim could do with being just a smidge larger.
Thank you Hat Queen for the Friday treat of 2 hats !!
I do remember the first lavender hat. I love everything about it and this whole look for Queen Elizabeth. The lattice woven crown and the polka dot bow of the dress are just so pretty.
I don’t recall ever seeing the second hat before. It’s very unusual and I like it very much. The view from above is especially good. I like the combination of the woven silk crown with the gorgeous straw brim. I’d love this hat in pink!
I like both but wish the brim on the lavender hat had been maybe an inch larger. The crown looks rather large in comparison to the brim.