Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan attended a swimming competition yesterday as part of the 13th National Sports Festival for People with Disabilities. The empress must have heard your recent compliments about her grey hat (a slightly larger hat than she usually wears) as she wore a similarly sized hat in cream with slate blue trim. We’re used to seeing her in teeny tiny saucer hats; I think this larger sized saucer hat suits her very well.
Photo from The Asahi Shimbun
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attended a ceremony in Tokyo today commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Japanese Disabled Veterans Association. Michiko wore one of her characteristic saucer hats in light grey, trimmed with a bow at the front.
Photos from the Asahi Shimbun
Several royals have traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina to attend the 125th IOC Session which begins today. While we have not seen photos of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Prince Albert of Monaco, King Constantine of Greece, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, Princess Hisako of Takamodomiya or Princess Nora of Liechtenstein in a hat (nor do I expect to), Princess Akiko of Mikasa was spotted with millinery at the Japanese Botanical Gardens yesterday. Princess Akiko, eldest daughter of the late Prince Tomahito of Mikasa (who was first cousin to Emporer Akihito), is accompanying the Japanese delegation to support the Tokyo bid for the 2020 Olympics. For her visit to the gardens, Akiko wore a characteristically sedate dove grey hat with rounded crown and upturned brim.
Photo by Getty as indicated
Princess Tsuguko of Takamado is the daughter of the late Japanese Prince Takamodo (who was a first cousin of the current emperor) and Princess Hisako Takamodo (who we saw last week as well as at the Swedish Royal Wedding earlier this summer). This week, Princess Tsuguko, who works at the Japan Committee for UNICEF, is on a four-day visit to Sri Lanka. She began the visit with a classic white boater hat with crisp navy and white striped hatband and bow.
To visit Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday, Tsuguko wore a classic white Breton hat with an upturned brim trimmed with a pouf of blue feathers on the side.
Photo by The Asahi Shimbun and Sudath Silva
Empress Michiko, Honorary President of Japan Red Cross Society, presented the Florence Nightingale Medal to several nurses at an award ceremony in Tokyo yesterday.
The Empress wore one of her customary small grey, this one with a rimmed edge and layered bow. While this does look like many of Michiko’s other hats, I can’t find another instance of her wearing this particular design and guess that this one might be new. I have come to accept these flat millinery designs for The Empress (it really is her signature style) but I dearly wish she would break away from her many, many grey hats and wear a little more colour.
Princess Kiko, Empress Michiko’s daughter-in-law, wore a large white silk pillbox decorated with a flat bow at the back. This is the same hat she wore in September 2006 to present her son, baby Prince Hisahito, to the Shinto Shrine on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Princess Hanako, wife of Emperor Akihito’s younger brother Prince Hitachi, wore a pale blue silk bumper hat with a rolled brim. I think the bunch of blue and white cooked spaghetti trimming her hat was a little odd, although it did provide a hit of interest and colour in the otherwise monochrome and very plain hats of the Imperial ladies!
Princess Hisako, widow of Emperor Akihito’s first cousin Prince Takamado, wore an dove grey silk hat with a tightly upturned brim. I think it looked quite flattering on her although I prefer hats with brims that don’t look so sewn in place. This hat does look great with the high collar of her dress and that fabulous string of pearls.
We don’t often see the Japanese royal ladies at an engagement together so I can’t resist asking you, dear readers, which hat you liked best?
Photo from The Asahi Shimbun via Getty and The Tokito Blog
Royal Hats 