For the first day of this visit, Queen Silvia wore a new, leaf-shaped royal blue headpiece trimmed with lovely handmade flowers with beaded stamen centers.
The colour is ace on Silvia and the headpiece’s smooth surface contrasts nicely with her lace dress. The flowers are also a fantastic touch. I’m less certain about the shape and placement- it works well with Queen Silvia’s hairstyle from front view but less so from the side. It’s nice to see her experiment with the more traditional calot shape she often wears but I’m just not sure this shape is a great one.
Tuesday’s enthronement ceremony was attended by a number of royal events adorned in either national costume or traditional century court dress, giving the wonderfully formal gown-and-hat combination we don’t often see.
Queen Máxima donned a familiar slate blue gown in transparent silk brocade printed with large roses but paired it with a different hat than we’ve seen with it before- her grey silk floral and dotted net tulle statement headpiece. The scale and bold design of the headpiece pairs wonderfully with the gown, elevating the sense of drama and gravitas of the overall ensemble.
Queen Mathilde was wonderfully elegant in a an exquisite gown, cape and pillbox trio in pale pink silk crepe. The clean, sleek lines of each piece make them balance perfectly together and create a serene and quietly regal look. It’s a fashion philosophy we often see used with the Imperial royal ladies- perhaps the inspiration or influence for this ensemble?
Designer: unknown. Gown by Armani Prive. Previously Worn: This hat is new. It is not the same as the felt calot worn February 6, 2014 as some blogs are reporting.
Queen Letizia paired her bright, floral gown with a divided bandeau headpiece in pale, dusky pink silk. The scale is great on her and the solid colour is a great choice against her patterned dress, although I thought the bandeau’s construction, with many visible stitches, wasn’t quite up to snuff.
Designer: Nana Golmar. It is a bespoke silk version of the velvet “Iria Headband“. Gown by Matilde Cano. Previously Worn: this headpiece is new
Crown Princess Mary’s muted lilac-grey caped dress was brightened with mulberry purple straw hat. The modified saucer is worn at a steep incline and trimmed with two huge silk flowers on the underside of the raised brim, the one at the front in mixed shades of purple. Supremely elegant on its own, I think this gown is again, elevated with the statement hat – not to mention those rubies!
Designer: Jane Taylor. Gown by Valentino Previously Worn: This hat is new
Crown Princess Victoria wore a straw saucer hat in the same deep inky purple shade as her gown. The piece, also designed to sit at a sharply tilted angle on the head, is lavishly trimmed with silk roses and straw twists beneath the raised brim, a touch that gives such textural contrast to the opposite, very smooth upper side of the saucer.
Designer: Philip Treacy. Gown by Escada. Previously Worn: This hat is new
Seated next to Crown Princess Victoria was a face new to Royal Hats, Swazi King Mswati III’s newest wife, Inkhosikati LaMashwama. She topped her white suit with a vibrant blue straw hat with disc base trimmed with rolled straw rosettes and large bow loops, blue tulle, purple cut feathers and pearls, scattered over the base.
I know some readers have been waiting days to discuss the hats in this post (my apologies for the delay) so I turn it over to you- what millinery looks here were your favourites?
The Swedish Royal Family arrived at the Swedish Parliament House in Stockholm this morning to take part in the opening of the new parliamentary session
The family, led by the king and queen, dressed in the black and white dress code traditionally associated with this event (well, most of them did but we’ll get to that, shortly!). Queen Silvia repeated her white straw calot hat with back bow and net tulle veil. The beehive shaped hat is wrapped in stripes of straw, giving the design texture and dimension in addition to a distinctive shape. It’s not my favourite hat in Silvia’s wardrobe but integrates very well with her hairstyle.
Crown Princess Victoria wore an interesting headpiece put together from two previously worn separate designs. The white triple ringed bandeau previously had a large white bloom that was removed today and in its place, Victoria’s headpiece of black and white layered butterfly bows. I’m all for mixing millinery pieces whenever possible but there’s something incongruous about this combination, which, I’m afraid, looks like a bit of a mash-up. I wish the ringed bandeau had been repeated in its original, flower trimmed form.
Princess Sofia veered away from the black and white dress code with a two-piece headpiece – face framing bandeau and a separate bow worn at the base of her neck- in luxe wine velvet. As far as bandeaus go, it’s a good one and frames Sofia’s face beautifully. The colour, however, has me scratching my own head here- yes, it’s a beautiful, painterly fall colour that looks fantastic in velvet but… I can’t believe I’m stating the obvious here… it’s not black or white. Is this the start of coloured accessories for this event? I hope so!
This is one of very few annual hatted events in Sweden and leaves me curious, dearest readers- what do you think of this trio of off-the-face millinery designs?
Continuing our look back at the July 9, 1999 wedding of Princess Alexia of Greece and Carlos Quintana, we turn our attention to hats worn by members of the Norwegian and Swedish royal families. Queen Sonja topped an iridescent lime suit with a picture hat in slightly darker green straw. The hat featured a shallow, rounded crown and a wide brim with dowturned edge and was trimmed with lovely lime silk orchids.
Queen Silvia also wore a hat much larger than the styles we see her favour most often today. In dove grey straw, her picture hat’s round, flat crown topped an oversize mushroom brim. The hat was simply trimmed with a wide grey silk hat and and brim binding. With her grey ensemble, the overall look oozed elegance.
Crown Princess Victoria was just 22 at the time of this wedding and, I suspect, not yet a customer of couture hats. Her slouchy brown stitched hat followed an hourglass shape (popular at the time) with upturned Kettle brim and bow on the side.
Princess Madeleine wore a pink sinamay hat. The hat’s boater style crown was covered in pleated rows of crin and the cartwheel brim, in a relaxed crin ruffle overlay. The hat’s classic shape in light crin embellishment made a sweet and feminine choice for the teenage princess, even if the trailing bow down the back was a bit twee.
Some of you have commented on the large number of picture hats at this wedding and the two added here were among my favourites. What do you think of these hats?
The Swedish King and Queen attended an annual Association of Friends of the Artists event today. The event was held again this year at Waldemarsudde, former home and gallery of Prince Eugene, fourth son of King Oscar II who was an accomplished landscape painter, art collector and patron (at the time of his death in 1947, Prince Eugene’s private collection included 3,200 works by the himself, and 3,500 works by almost 450 other artists) who created a Swedish Artists’ Support Fund Foundation in 1937. For this fundraiser, Queen Silvia wore a picture hat red straw hat.
A quick trip back in the photo archives shows this hat’s last outing was over a decade ago on May 5, 2008 during a state visit to Portugal. Photos taken from this visit show the hat has a wide, sidesweeping brim in triple-layers of very thin red straw and is trimmed by an oversize straw flower with straw petals cascading over the crown (which appears to be a nearly transparent, single layer of straw) and lower side of the brim.
It’s not my favourite hat on the Swedish queen- I think the scale is too large on her. Wide brims are great unless they leave the impression of swallowing up their wearer, something I think is the case here.
Designer: I suspect Fabienne Delvigne Previously Worn: May 5, 2008
It’s always curious when a hat that’s not seen the light of day for a decade makes a sudden return. Photos of today’s event aren’t good enough to tell if there’s been a renovation of this hat’s crown (it looks square in today’s photo)- hopefully, we’ll not need to wait another decade to see it in closer detail to know for certain. What do you think of Queen Silvia’s reappeared red hat?
For the first day of this visit, Queen Silvia debuted a new molded bumper hat in vibrant magenta felt. The smaller scale hat is trimmed with a felt cutout leaf on one side that anchors a small bunch of feathers that lay accross the front of the design and cascade off the other side.
The colour is wonderful on Queen Silvia as is the angle she wore it, perched slightly on the right side of her head. The hat’s small scale works well with the matching coat (in just slightly a different enough shade for the pieces to still coordinate), the neckline of which goes so well with a hat.
Designer: Kerstin Carlefalk Previously Worn: this hat is new
Sabina Higgins, wife of Irish President Michael Higgins, repeated a a pale pink cocktail hat with dramatic pleated square fan motif on the side. The sculptural piece is a memorable one she wears so well (she first wore it for the Irish state visit to Great Britain in 2014) and I’m so pleased to see again.
The funeral of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg was attended by representatives from nearly every European royal house, many who wore hats. Out of respect for this event and the Grand Duke’s memory, this post contains photos only (no commentary) and is not open for comments.
Monarchs from Denmark, Sweden, Liechtenstein and Norway:
