On Thursday, Queen Beatrix opened the opening of the 79th session of the Institut de Droit international (IDI) in the Hague. She topped her black floral dress with a black straw hat with tall, pleated Breton style brim.
Princess Ingrid’s confirmation took place yesterday in the Chapel of the Royal Palace in Oslo. For this milestone, she, Crown Princess Mette Marit, Queen Sonja and Princess Märtha Louise, all wore traditional Norwegian bunads with the folk costume’s wreath-style rolled headpiece .
Ingrid’s new bunad was a gift from her grandparents, King Harald and Queen Sonja. In a wonderfully personal touch, Queen Sonja, who was a trained dressmaker before beginning her royal life, helped create the traditional folk dress.
Ingrid’s godmother, Crown Princess Victoria, attended the event in a lilac silk chiffon dress with matching headpiece. of lilac silk ribbon pleated flowers with hand beaded centers from Parant Parant Couture Headpieces by Örjan Jackobsson. Crown Princess Mary, who attended with Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Christian, wore a new folded headpiece in plum straw that wrapped around her head with a side rosette.
Also today, Queen Elizabeth was joined by Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence for Sunday service at Crathie Kirk in Scotland. The Queen repeated a raspberry Rachel Trevor Morgan hat with sidesweeping short brim and felt feather trim. Princess Anne wore a new brown felt trilby with extended brim and what looks like a spray of feathers on the side by Amy Morris-Adams, different from the very similar brown trilby with side bow she wore for the first time LAST Sunday.
Pierre Casiraghi was part of the sailing team for Greta Thunberg’s landmark voyage and navigated some rather rough seas.
Empress Masako and the Imperial princesses donned traditional kimonos on Friday for a palace tea party hosted for African leaders.
We end this week with an August 27 performance”The Swan” by Saint-Saëns by Empress Emerita Michiko and flutist Karl-Heinz Schütz (jump to 0:30 to start)
Last Sunday, Princess Hisako attended a baseball tournament for school children in Tokyo in a large hat with wide black brim and white pork pie-style indented crown
Also last Sunday, Queen Elizabeth repeated her pale blue straw cloche with sloped crown, silk hatband and handmade feather flower by Rachel Trevor Morgan to attend Sunday Service at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral Castle. The Countess of Wessex repeated a navy felt Jane Taylor trilby and the Duchess of Cornwall repeated her natural ecru straw capulet hat.
And from Australian milliner Jill Humphries who works until the Jill and Jack Millinery label, this breathtaking halo headpiece in gold jinsin with cut gold feathers. Simplicity without any compromise of beauty.
Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko are on a trip to Bhutan and, for the first time, have brought Prince Hisahito along with them. Visits with the Bhutan king, queen and crown prince yielded some lovely photos, especially ones of the young boys together and Prince Hisahito trying out archery, Bhutan’s national sport
On Saturday, August 3, Princess Hisako was in Teshikaga for the “Starry Sky Town, Blue Sky Town” National Convention. She wore a very interesting ivory hat with short brim, coral hatband and tall ivory wrap around the crown that fluted into the shape of a flower.
On Sunday, August 4, she attended the closing ceremony of a national Sea Cadet convention in Tokyo. The blue hat she wore is trimmed with a twist in the same printed fabric as her suit, a slim navy twisted hatband and layered, textured leaves in jade, magenta, chocolate, blue and cream. The scale and shape are so great on her and I adore the pop of colour!
On Tuesday, August 6, Queen Elizabeth officially took up summer residence at Balmoral Castle, inspecting the Balaklava Company, 5 Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland at the castle gates. She repeated a Rachel Trevor Morgan designed hat first worn last summer– this outing gives a much better view of the silk crepe covered cloche with double hatband (love the punchy contrast of the black hatband) and handmade flowers.
On Thursday, August 8, Prince George and Princess Charlotte attended the King’s Cup Regatta in Cowes to watch the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge take part in the race. While his parents donned informal baseball hats, Prince George was slightly more commanding in his naval cap.
On Saturday, August 10th, Princess Tsuguko of Takamado attended the archery finals of the Inter-High School General Sports Championships in Yatsushiro in a striking black and white straw hat.
On Sunday, August 11, members of Queen Elizabeth’s family joined her for Sunday morning service at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral in Scotland. The Queen repeated an Angela Kelly designed cream square-crowned cloche with thick hatband in the same pink striped bouclé as her matching suit, trimmed with a pink silk rose. The Duchess of Cornwall repeated a dark mushroom grey formed felt beret trimmed with pheasant feathers. Princess Beatrice of York repeated a cream Gina Foster beret percher trimmed with navy silk flowers and veil.
Empress Masako in an angular grey silk hat with bumper brim and small bow at the back on Thursday at a WWII commemoration ceremony
Princess Hisako in a pale celery green hat with appliqued lace covered crown and rolled crin brim today to open a new field hockey stadium for next year’s Olympic summer games (notice her field hockey stick necklace!)
Queen Elizabeth attended a craft fair at Crathie Kirk in Scotland today, finally giving us a great view of the turquoise straw hat with double hatband and bows she wore, also in Scotland, back in 2017. Clearly a Rachel Trevor Morgan design, I really like the contrasting stripes on the bow ribbon tails which tie in with Her Majesty’s skirt
And from Dutch milliner Wies Mauduit, this fabulous grape sinamay percher with pink and scarlet twist. Colourful hats can be difficult to balance but this one is perfect, remaining firmly stylish and modern (no cartoonishness here!). It’s also impeccably finished- note the complete absence of visible seams and crisp edges on the two-toned twist. So fun!
Condolences to the Dutch royal family as they grieve the loss of Princess Christina (Princess Beatrix’s youngest sister) who died yesterday after a battle with bone cancer. Plans are for a private memorial with her cremated remains going to Fagel’s Garden Pavilion on the grounds of Noordeinde Palace. Read a statement and obituary from the Dutch monarchy here.
Lovely informal shots of the Spanish Royal Family taken while on their annual vacation in Palma de Mallorca.
We end this week with adorable photos of Princess Anne’s four granddaughters Savannah, Isla, Mia and Lena, enjoying the Festival of British Eventing the first weekend of August at their grandmum’s estate, Gatcombe Park
Empress Masako in a classic navy and cream hat on Monday to attend the 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium with the Emperor in Yokohama
Also on Monday, Princess Yoko of Mikasa atteded the National Kendo Competition For elementary junior high school children in Tokyo in a cream short-brimmed hat with mustard hatband
The following new millinery designs caught my eye this week:
and second is this stunning Breton made with latticed black and white shantung straw with curling black quills by Jill Humphries, who works under the Jill and Jack Millinery label
Jazmin Grimaldi shared this lovely snap taken last weekend at Louis and Marie Ducruet’s evening wedding reception, posing in a stunning gown with her partner and step-brother Alexandre
We wrap up this week with some very sweet snaps of little Lena Tindall (and her big sister) enjoying the 2019 Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park with their mum
Next up was the Banqueting Room Gallery which contained rather fewer hats spread out across the various pieces of furniture. I absolutely LOVED the red top hat with fur tail which was in the “Murder by Millinery” section! There was also an interesting hat made of felt puzzle pieces. Further along the room were some hats that looked liked diamante spiders webs – a very interesting way to make a hat giving such a light delicate effect.
After this room you pass into the most amazing room in the whole pavilion – The Saloon. I was blown away by this room from its fantastic Axminster made Peacock carpet to the silk wall linings it truly was fabulous! I don’t think there were any hats in this room as the room is too splendid in itself. Leaving the Saloon you arrive in the Music Room Gallery and here I saw a lovely black musical note fascinator, a jaunty hat was very taken with as it was so very delicate.
The Music Room itself is a large grand room of red walls with gold pictures painted thereon. This room showcased several Dior gowns topped off by Stephen’s creations – I understand that the dresses have been gifted to the Pavilion by Dior, if true that certainly is a lovely gift!
Some of the busts were adorned with hat creations as well, although one is of Stephen Jones himself, I assume solely for the exhibition. His hat is a gold dragon-esque design and then we have the King with a series of Chinese style hats in graduating sizes really quite novel to see.
In the Kings Apartments on the ground Floor there was a selection of “crowns” some being made from teddy bears and a rather spectacular silvery metal crown over the centre of the bed head (see this at 1:30 in the first video at the bottom). Following, was a series of hats that were made to look like dresses that I loved. These were so imaginative and pretty and like nothing I had ever seen before. It truly is amazing what you can into a hat.
Upstairs, the Yellow Bow Rooms contained a massive gold hat suspended over one bed – the same one as on the floor beside Mr. Jones in the photo below. Unfortunately I was flagging somewhat by this time so did not pay too much attention to what the hat was made of! Needless to say it was certainly impressive by virtue of its size. In another of the Yellow Bow Rooms, there was a large feather hat sitting on the bed and you can see Stephen wearing it in the second video below.
In the final area/room of the Pavilion, the South Galleries (landing area) had the most futuristic hats of all – like helmets but they reminded me of the Cadbury’s Smash aliens!
I’m afraid I was not overly keen on how the hats were displayed in some rooms, as the Pavilion itself is a very ornate and “busy” place so it was at times at bit hard to distinguish what was pavilion and what was exhibit! This was particularly the case in the Banqueting Room. However, after preparing this review of the exhibition, I wanted to go again to absorb more of it. Over 150 hats is a lot to take in in one visit and I wish I had taken some notes. It was very much worth the visit as the Pavilion is stunning and these hats just added to the amazing experience. I was just a little sad that there were no postcards of the actual hats on show to buy, just some design drawings that were not actually Stephen Jones’ and some books. It would have been good if the Pavilion had been able to produce some sort of small catalogue showing a photo and details of each hat and dress on display for say £5 as I am sure it would have been be a sell out!
These videos give a very good overview of the exhibition. In the second video, Stephen Jones discusses the exhibition (he talks to his hats!) and adds interesting tidbits about his career.
Scarfie, this tour has been fantastic. An immense thank you from all of us who were not able to make the trip to Brighton to see it for bringing it to us. Thanks for helping us celebrate Stephen Jones, one of the great masters of millinery.
Photos from Scarfie may not be replicated under any circumstances; phots from social media and Getty are indicated
Royal Hats 