46 years ago, a young Prince of Wales accompanied his parents to Ascot. The Prince and Duke of Edinburgh were in grey top hats while the Queen wore a turban entirely covered in silk blooms. It is a lot of hat for a petite monarch (one that could easily overshadow its wearer) but it is delightfully fun on Her Majesty.
Photo from Keystone/Stringer via Getty
73 years ago today, fifteen year old Princess Elizabeth and her ten year old sister Princess Margaret were photographed in a matching pair of straw hats in the garden of Windsor Castle. Europe had been at war for nearly two years; I suppose these pastoral photos were taken and released to help buoy the morale of the British public.
The Queen Mother’s garden hat was rather marvelous, wasn’t it?!
Photos from Lisa Sheridan/Stringer and Lisa Sheridan/Stringer via Getty
45 years ago today, Prince Charles was invested as the Prince of Wales.
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On July 1, 1969, the 20-year-old Prince received the insignia as the 21st Prince of Wales from the Queen at an outdoor ceremony before 4,000 guests at Caernarfon Castle in north-west Wales. The medieval castle was inspiration for the visually austere ceremony (directed by Princess Margaret’s husband Lord Snowdon, who designed the set and decor).
The Queen’s hat, in pale yellow silk, was inspired by a Tudor era French hood and designed by Simone Mirman. The crown was embroidered with seed pearls and the attached hood, with hand stitched pleats, wrapped around the back of the Queen’s head. The hat had a distinctly round overall shape and remains one of the more unusual pieces in the Queen’s millinery past.
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The 2016 exhibition “Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen’s Wardrobe” provided a fantastic, close-up view of this hat, confirming its pale yellow colour and a level of execution that is astounding. Jump over to this post for our 2016 discussion on this hat.
Prince Charles’ grandmother, aunt and sister wore a trio of sorbet hued hats. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother wore a voluminous hat with upturned, halo brim. The hat was entirely covered in wispy osprey feathers dyed to match her acid green lace dress.
Princess Margaret wore a coral pink turban-inspired calot with a trailing hood.
While Princess Anne’s hat, a large turquoise pillbox designed by John Boyd, was a more timeless shape, the giant circle of turquoise and white ruffles at the back firmly dates it in the late 1960s as well.
I adore all three hats for the bold style statements they individually made (and have always wondered if Lord Snowdon assigned them each a colour to coordinate with the heraldry hanging around the castle!).
There is no question these hats are from the 1960s- the colour and style of both hats clearly reflects the fashion of this time.I am curious to hear your thoughts on these hats, particularly as they seem rather stuck in time and I suspect, have been forgotten.
** While the Duchess of Gloucester, the Duchess of Kent and Princess Alexandra also attended this ceremony, photos of them seem to be scarce. Any links you can provide would be most helpful.
Photos from Central Press/Stringer, Anwar Hussein, Anwar Hussein and Popperfoto via Getty; Alamy via The Daily Mail; Hulton Archive/Stringer and Anwar Hussein via Getty
A year after this photograph was taken, Edward VIII would abdicate and six months later, Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson would become the Duchess of Windsor. There is something quite bewitching about her even in this photograph, don’t you think? And the hat? Splendid.
Photo taken in 1935 by legendary photographer Man Ray
The world famous Chelsea Flower Show has attracted thousands (millions?) of visitors over the 100 years it has been held. The British Royal Family are loyal supporters- Queen Elizabeth has attended the show nearly every year and I thought it would be fun to look back at some of her hats.
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At the show in 1947, 1959, 1960 and 1966
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1952 and 1962
There are two peculiar things about the Queen’s millinery at this event. The first is that she stopped wearing hats to it in 1970. Second, In the early 1970s, she began wearing a hair net covered in black bows, something we don’t see her wear for any other occasion. Some writers have speculated that she did this to protect her hair from unexpected gusts of wind on her outdoor walk through the exhibition gardens but this fall flat for me- Queen Elizabeth’s other engagements include outdoor components in far gustier places than Central London. If if there was such worry about her hair… why not wear a hat?!
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1972, 1974, 1996, 2011
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1975, 1977, 2012
Update: since 2012, the Queen has visited the flower show with neither a hat nor a hairnet. It remains one of the very few daytime public events she attends bare headed.
We’ll likely never know the reason(s) why the Queen replaced hats at the flower show with hairnets (and subsequently, no head covering at all!) What do you think?
Photos from Getty as indicated
Royal Hats 