While the races for favourite repeated hat and hats worn by royal men are great fun, the poll many of you have been awaiting is the one for favourite new royal hat of the year. 2016 brought numerous new millinery designs that thrilled us royal hat watchers and throughout the past year, we have narrowed down our favourites to seventeen designs from fifteen different milliners. Now, we turn our attention toward choosing a single winner.

As in all other polls here at Royal Hats, click on any of the photos below to jump back to original posts with additional pictures and information on each hat. Here are the seventeen finalists, again all picked by you, dearest readers, for Best New Royal Hat of 2016:

1.   2.

Empress Michiko’s white saucer hat with pale teal silk roses and leaves worn January 27
Queen Elizabeth on February 8 in a square, red Angela Kelly design with black curls

 3.  4.

Zara Tindall in a navy felt percher beret covered in feathers by Rosie Olivia worn on March 16
Zara Tindall’s oyster grey straw teardrop percher with feather trim ’round the back by Rosie Olivia worn April 9

5.  6.Embed from Getty Images

Crown Princess Mary on May 27 in Susanne Juul’s black straw picture hat with waved brim
 Countess of Wessex in a pale blue Jane Taylor percher hat with organza bell flowers worn June 10

7.  8.

Duchess of Cambridge’s Philip Treacy white slice brimmed hat with pink rose on June 11
Princess Eugenie on June 11 in Vivien Sheriff’s ecru raised saucer hat with feathers

9.  10.

Zara Tindall’s electric blue percher with yellow quills by Rosie Olivia worn on Day 1
Princess Eugenie’s pale pink lattice picture hat with feathers by Jess Collett worn on Day 3

11. 12.

Princess Beatrice’s navy saucer disc hat with silk orchids by Gina Foster worn on Day 5
Princess Eugenie on Day 5 in a black mushroom picture hat with pearls by Nerida Fraiman

13.

Princess Anne in a pale aqua saucer hat with leaf applique straw leaf detail worn July 1 

14. 15.

Lady Brabourne’s grey and silver hat with upswept brim by Dillon Wallwork worn June 25
Duchess of Cambridge’s royal blue percher with leaf trim by Silvia Fletcher for Lock & Co. on Sep 24

16.  17.

Queen Silvia’s greige felt hat with black striped underbrim worn Oct 5
Princess Charlene  on Nov 19 in Rachel Trevor Morgan’s black and white straw pyramid hat with roses

Voting will remain open until Tuesday, January 31 at midnight GMT and each computer or mobile device can vote twice per day for as many hats as you wish. To keep the poll completely fair, results will remain hidden until the poll closes and I urge you to refer back to the original posts for a closer look at each hat’s detail to help you make your choice(s).

Photos from Jay Directo, Max Mumby/Indigo, Max Mumby/Indigo, Max Mumby/Indigo, Andreas Rentz, Danny Martindale, Samir Hussein, Mark Cuthbert, Chris Jackson, Kirstin Sinclair, Max Mumby/Indigo and Mark Cuthbert via Getty; Rachel Adams via Rex Features;  CBC; VOCM; Karwai Tang, Sean Gallup, and  Theirry Orban via Getty

When it comes to millinery worn by royal men, things get a little tricky. Most commonly, we see male royals in hats relating to military uniform or top hats with morning dress. While there is more variation between top hats (crown height, colour, material) than uniform hats (where which the wearer simply gets what they get), top hats still follow a very similar blueprint and look rather similar. The only time we see true variation or personal style is when royal men wear a hat of their own choosing. These ‘everything else’ hats are a rather casual bunch but as this reflects the reality of hat wearing among royal men (and their personal style), we’re going to go with it.

I promised you all that we would include men’s hats in the process to determine our year-end favourites and we’re going to do this two ways- with with a poll on the ‘everything else’ hats as well as look at the top hats we saw this year. While we won’t poll the top hats, I’m interested to hear your thoughts on these designs and discuss who we think wears these traditional toppers best.

Here are the non-uniform and non-top hat pieces of millinery worn by royal men in 2016, shown in the general order they were worn (please click on photos or captions to link back to original feature posts):

1.  2.

Prince Henrik’s white embellished papakah worn hunting in January
King Carl Gustaf’s black fedora worn to the Norwegian Silver Jubilee Jan 17

3.  4.

Peter Phillips in a brown felt fedora March 17 at the Cheltenham Festival
Duke of Edinburgh’s cream straw Panama hat May 14 at the Royal Windsor Horse Show

5.  6.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s brown plaid newsboy cap worn May 14
Prince Michael of Kent’s cream straw Panama hat also worn May 14

7.  8.

Duke of Edinburgh’s black bowler hat for the Beating Retreat of the Royal Marines May 28
King Carl Gustaf’s trusty brown fedora, shown here at the World Equestrian Festival July 12

9.  10.

Mike Tindall in a textured woven straw trilby worn in Gloucestershire August 28
King Carl Gustaf’s cream Panama hat worn for a late August car rally

 11. 12.

Prince Henrik’s brown hunting fedora worn or the Hubertus Hunt, Nov 6
And for a bit of fun… Prince Harry in a traditional Guyanese headdress, Dec 3

Voting will remain open until Tuesday, January 31 at midnight GMT and each computer or mobile device can vote twice per day for as many hats as you wish. To keep the poll completely fair, results will remain hidden until the poll closes and I encourage you again to refer back to the original posts to look at each hat’s detail.

Now for the top hats- we saw seventeen different top hats last year, worn by members of five royal houses. Between colour, material, crown height and brim shape, which ones do you like the most? Which ones do you like least and why? Which top hat would you nominate for your favourite worn last year? Click on any photo below to jump back to the original feature post.

Duke of Edinburgh, Lord Frederick Windsor, Prince of Wales

King Harald of Norway, Prince Nikolaos of Greece & Denmark, Duke of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent, Duke of Gloucester, Duke of Cambridge

Duke of York, Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, Prince Harry

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Earl of Wessex 

Photos from  Mathias Løvgreen Bojesen/Scanpix; Ragnar Singsaas, Max Mumby/Indigo, Max Mumby/Indigo, Max Mumby/Indigo, WPA Pool via Getty; Stella Pictures; Tim P. Whitby via Getty; Stella Pictures; Stella Pictures; Chris Jackson via Getty
Top hat photos from Adrian Dennis, Samir Hussein, Mark Cuthbert, Anwar Hussein, Julian Parker, Max Mumby/Indigo via Getty; The British Monarchy; Chris Jackson, WPA Pool via Getty; The British Monarchy; Anwar Hussein, Mark Cuthbert, Chris Jackson, Chris Jackson, Julian Parker, Alan Crowhurst and Chris Jackson via Getty

This is it.

Throughout the past year, we have narrowed down our favourite royal hats through a series of monthly polls. It is now time to choose our winners of the year. First up is the race for favourite repeated design.

As in all previous polls, click on any of the photos below to jump back to original posts with additional pictures and information on each design. Please note that while several of these hats were worn more than once last year, they are only shown below in the outing that won one of the monthly semifinal polls.

 Here are the thirteen finalists, all picked by you, dearest readers, for Best Repeated Royal Hat of 2016:

The results for our final monthly semifinal polls for favourite new and repeated royal hat are in. Your winners are:

Princess Charlene in Rachel Trevor Morgan’s black and white straw pyramid hat with red roses worn Nov 19

Duchess of Cornwall’s black felt hat with upswept brim by Philip Treacy worn Nov 13  and on Dec 25
along with the Countess of Wessex’s navy straw percher with feather trim by Jane Taylor worn Nov 24

A number of you contacted me with feedback that the poll for best repeated design was exceptionally difficult to choose. To address this, we decided to put forward the top two hats. With less than 25 votes between these two winners, it seems fitting that both move forward to the final.

Jump over to the bottom of the original poll posts (new hats here and repeated hats here) to look at the results in greater detail. Stay tuned later this week for the final contest of favourite hats worn in 2016. It’s going to be a great competition.

Photos from Theirry Orban, Justin Tallis and Chris Jackson via Getty

While December was a fairly quiet month for royal millinery, November was full of official engagements, state visits and other events that called for hats. Based on your comments, there are twelve designs worn over the past two months that stand out as particularly successful. Some of you may note that one hat here was already included in the poll for favourite new hat, qualifying for both polls as it both premiered and repeated in the same month!

Click on any of the photos below to jump back to original posts with additional pictures and information on each design. Here are your twelve finalists:

1.  2.  

Queen Máxima’s natural straw upswept ‘slice’ hat by Fabienne Delvigne worn in Australia Nov 1
Duchess of Cornwall’s teal straw hat with interlocking ring trim by Philip Treacy worn Nov 1