The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester attended the Founder’s Day Parade at Royal Hospital Chelsea on Thursday, the Duke in military uniform and the Duchess in her repeated pale grey straw beret.
Princess Delphine designed a Lamborghini which will race in the third stage of the DTM championships in Zolder, Belgium
Princess Delphine of Belgium attended the press presentation held for Lamborghini Art Car, which will race in the third stage of the DTM championships, at the race track in Zolder. The Princess designed the appearance of Lamborghini. pic.twitter.com/CjACZTMfY5
— Queen Maxima and Royal Ladies (@vaninaswchindt) August 7, 2021
And finally, lovely photos from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for the UK’s Big Butterfly Count initiative.
I’m so pleased to welcome back longtime reader, hat aficionado (follow him on Instagram or Twitter) and friend of Royal Hats, Jake Short, for the fourth post in a 5-part series on the history and hats of the Ethiopian Imperial Family (see Part 3 here).
Haile Selassie visited the Netherlands in 1954 and was photographed holding a plumed ceremonial military hat while Queen Juliana wore a calot with swooping feather trim.
During this visit, these wonderful photos were captured with the Emperor in his military cap and Queen Juliana in turbans- one covered in pleated ruffles and the other, smooth.
King Paul and Queen Frederika of Greece visited Addis Ababa in 1959. Here they are seen with the Emperor and Empress, all wearing hats suited to their rank and typical for that time.
Again in his military cap, Haile Selassie is seen with other royals at a ceremony in Iran in 1971 to celebrate 2,500 years of the Persian Empire; Queen Fabiola and King Baudouin of Belgium (with Princess Anne of the UK behind them), Queen Ingrid and King Frederik of Denmark, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (behind Emperor Haile Selassie), and Shah Reza Pahlavi and Shahbanou Farah Diba of Iran can be seen wearing hats (many more royals were also in attendance at this grand event).
Relations with the Japanese Imperial Family, another reigning imperial family, were cordial and saw multiple visits. Haile Selassie visited Japan in 1956 with his eldest daughter Princess Tenagnework (seated, wearing a veiled calot), her daughter Princess Aida Desta (wearing a feathered casque hat), and Prince Makonnen, Duke of Harar. Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen and Crown Princess Medferiashwork visited Japan in 1959; while neither wore hats during a duck hunting session, their hosts Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko did. Crown Princess Medferiashwork was seen during this same visit in a toque-like hat during a visit to a department store.
Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko visited Ethiopia in 1960, with Akihito (carrying a top hat) being formally received by Emperor Haile Selassie at the airport. Crown Princess Medferiashwork wore a calot while she and Michiko visited a girls’ school; Medferiashwork was later seen in a headscarf when she accompanied Michiko and Akihito (both in hats) on a visit to Mt. Entoto just north of Addis Ababa.
Finally, there were multiple interactions with the British Royal Family. A 1954 state visit to the UK by the Emperor and his son the Duke of Harar began at Victoria Station, where Queen Elizabeth II greeted Haile Selassie, who wore a ceremonial military hat trimmed with lion’s mane!
The Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Princess Mary, and Princess Alice, the Duchess of Gloucester, who all wore calots typical of the mid-1950s.
A 1965 visit to Ethiopia by the Queen and Prince Philip saw only military hats from the host royals (the Empress had died in 1962, and there is a lack of photos of other female royals to determine their level of participation in the visit).
Another informative post, Jake- thank you! The Ethiopian princesses’ calots and half hats during the Japanese visit (and reciprocal visit five years later) are beautiful examples of fashion of the time! It’s also a fascinating reminder how millinery styles changed (inflated!) from the 1950s to the 1960s! How well did Queen Juliana’s cream turban pair with her 1960s sunglasses?! Such a fun look!
Jake returns next week for the final post in this series.
The Duchess of Cornwall celebrated her birthday on July 17, an occasion we belatedly celebrate with another inventory of her hats. This time we’re looking at all of the pink designs in her wardrobe, shown below in order of debut:
1. 2. Designer: Both Philip Treacy Introduced: July 22, 2008; June 17, 2009
It’s a lot of barely-there blush! Camilla clearly prefers pastel hues, especially for her summer wardrobe, and she wears pink well. There are a few surprises here- I don’t recall seeing hat #1 before and it’s lovely! The other surprise for me was aside from the feather pinwheel of #5, these hats are one of two shapes- either the chunky crown/gentle sidesweep of #2 and #3 or the sharp slice sidesweep of #1, #4 and #6. They are wonderfully dramatic shapes that suit Camilla but I’d like to see a little more variation.
What do you notice about these blush beauties? Which hats stand out here most to you?
to July 31, 1917 and Prince and Princess Alexis of Serbia photographed in hats while on a visit to Stratford upon Avon. The Prince was a claimant to the Serbian throne through the Karageorgevitch family line while the princess was Myra Abigail “Abbie” Pratt, an American golfer who won a bronze medal in the 1900 Summer Olympics.