Category Archives: All About Design

Monday Multiples: Crown Princess Mete-Marit

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Crown Princess Mette-Marit has paired her classic ivory felt pillbox by Mona Strand with six different looks:

Look #1: With a cream Valentino collarless coat with bow-trimmed sleeve cuffs for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009

 

Look #2: With an ivory ruffled collar coat for Norwegian National Day, May 17, 2010

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Look #3: With a cream Carolina Herrera silk dress with navy belted sash worn June 2, 2010 for a Dutch state visit.

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Look #4: With a folk embroidered Valentino coat on May 15, 2014 for the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian constitution

Look #5: With a cream and brown tweed Fendi dress with pleated, chevron stitched skirt worn for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony

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Look #6: With a navy crepe Ganni fit and flare coat and a red dress for National Day celebrations in 2019 

Which ensemble do you prefer most with this hat?

Photos from Bauer Griffin; Stella Pictures; Gonzales Photo/Stian S. Moller/PYMCA-Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty; Getty as indicated

Inventory: Queen Margrethe’s Purple Hats

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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:

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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

Most Realistic Flowers?

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A large percentage of royal hats we see are trimmed in flowers of some type. For this week’s discussion question, dearest readers, I’m wondering: which royal hat hosts the most realistic looking flower(s)?

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Image from Getty as indicated

Inventory: Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie’s Yellow Hats

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Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie celebrates her 36th birthday today and to mark this, we’re taking a look at all of the yellow hats she has worn:

1.    2.
Designer: both are unknown
Introduced: June 18, 2016; May 25, 2018

We don’t see a lot of yellow hats worn on royal heads and while I’m not sure it’s Stéphanie’s best colour, I applaud the courage and confidence needed to wear such a stand-out colour.

Images from Valentin Dupont; Pierre Matgé via Belga

Inventory: Princess Marie’s Light Pink Hats

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On Saturday, February 6, Princess Marie of Denmark celebrated her 45th birthday. To mark this milestone, let’s take a closer look at all of the pale pink designs in her millinery closet. Here they are in order of introduction:

1.  2.  3.

Designer: all are unknown
Introduced: March 18, 2014; April 1, 2017; June 15, 2019

Princess Marie wears a hat or headpiece just a few times each year so it’s no surprise this collection is small. As far as fascinators go, the first two headpieces are good ones with lovely detail and scale; hat #3 is a charming design (adore the jaunty angle) that I look forward to seeing again.

What stands out to you about Princess Marie’s pale pink hat and headpieces?

Images from Ole Jensen / Corbis and Ole Jensen – Corbis / Corbis via Getty; and Chris Christopherson via the Danish Monarchy