On Tuesday, Princess Benedikte opened the new Nordhavn Campus of the Copenhagen International School. For this engagement, she repeated her purple wool hat with straight sided crown (with Pork Pie style indented dome) and cloche shaped bell brim, raised on one side. The simple purple hatband previously seen on this piece was overlaid with one printed with grey leopard spots, giving a hit of contrast and high impact pattern to the hat. Adding a new hatband was a simple change which gave immense new energy to this hat- I wonder why we don’t see these kinds of simple changes happen on royal millinery more often.

Princess Benedikte was in Hannover, Germany yesterday to open Freizeitmesse ABF 2017, a large leisure trade fair with over 800 exhibitors offering products related to hobbies, gardening, travel and the like. For this event, she repeated a papakha hat in striking burgundy/purple faux fur.

The colour is not the only interesting design feature on this hat- you’ll note below that the faux fur is embedded on the left side with several rows of what looks like black leather ruffles. These ruffles have always perplexed me a little (what’s the point?) although I suppose they provide a bit of embellishment to a hat that does not lend itself to a flower or bow plonked on the side.

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: Oct 7, 2008 and likely others

While these papakha style hats are obviously well suited to winter engagements (and faux fur really doesn’t lend itself to many other millinery shapes), I don’t always find them attractive. Princess Benedikte’s mix of grey suit and purple accessories works well to balance this piece and makes for a smart ensemble. What do you think of this purple furry hat?

Photos from Michael Wallmüller and Tim Schaarschmidt