On Sunday, King Carl Gustaf, Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden attended the ordination of Archbishop Antje Jackeléns, the fist female archbishop in Sweden, at Uppsala Cathedral. For this historic occasion, Queen Silvia wore a cream straw lampshade style hat with a side bloom. It is another traditional hat for the Swedish queen but paired with her beautiful pink coat, created such a pretty ensemble.

Designer: unknown
Previously worn: July 6, 2009

Crown Princess Victoria wore a black picture hat with a sweeping brim and simple white band around the crown. It is a rather austere picture hat as far as they go but it worked so well with Victoria’s clean-lined white dress.

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: December 10, 2013

What did you think of this pair of Swedish royal hats?

It is no surprise that the families of Princess Madeleine and Christopher O’Neill were both in attendance for Princess Leonore’s christening yesterday. What was surprising, however, was that they nearly all shopped at the same hat designer! Let’s start with Queen Silvia, who wore a large fascinator of twisted ribbon tails  in blue straw, trimmed with a large blue net veil. It was clearly custom made to compliment her blue lace Valentino dress and like Princess Madeleine, the overall effect was very light, airy and delicate. The last time we saw Queen Silvia, I wished a more modern millinery style for her; today, this wish was granted.

Designer: Philip Treacy
Previously Worn: This is a new headpiece

Crown Princess Victoria also eschewed a hat in favour of a dramatic headpiece. This one, in the same muted pink as her dress, wrapped around her head in a loose trio of bands and anchored a huge silk bloom at the side.

Embed from Getty Images

I will admit that I was on the fence about this headpiece (you all know how I feel about open-topped hats) until I realized it was a reinvention of the one Queen Silvia wore on August 31, 1979 for the christening of Prince Carl Philip. After making that connection and seeing this modern reworking of the original, I decided that it was wonderful on Victoria. The Swedes certainly do create sweet and emotional touches at big events, don’t they?

Designer: Philip Treacy
Previously Worn: This is a new headpiece

Christopher O’Neill’s mother, Eva O’Neill, also wore a Philip Treacy designed headpiece that wrapped around her head. While I loved the shimmery gold of the headpiece paired with Ms. O’Neill’s pale yellow coat, the wide layers made it look too much like a wrapped bandage.

Chris O’Neill’s sisters, Countess Natascha Abensperg und Traun and Tatjana D’Abo, also wore designs by Philip Treacy. Natascha’s black cocktail hat featured a bejeweled base topped with a net ring and a curling feather spine while Tajana’s jaunty vertical hat in cream straw was trimmed in large signature Treacy silk flowers.

Chris’ remaining two stepsisters,  Anna Lisa O’Neill and Karen O’Neill, were the only immediate family members not in Philip Treacy designs. Anna Lisa wore a very pretty transparent black straw hat with a multi-looped bow and Karen wore a pleated cocktail hat trimmed with a net rosette and feathers. 

The hats today were not what I was expecting- they were edgier and more haute couture than we usually see for a major royal event. Since I love royal millinery surprises, I’m going to consider this day a royal hat success. I can’t wait to hear you all weigh in!

Photos from Torsten Laursen via Getty; Splash News via Corbis; Stella Pictures. All Over Press and TT via Svenskdam;  Splash News via Corbis; Anna Lu Lundholm via Getty; Anna-Lena Ahlström via Kungahuset; Keystone / Stringer and Luca Treuchmann via Getty; and Patrick van Katwijk via Corbis