Queen Celebrates 100 Years of British Airways

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Queen Elizabeth was all smiles this morning, arriving at British Airways headquarters at Heathrow Airport to celebrate the airline’s centenary.

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For this celebratory occasion, she repeated her blue hat with straw sidesweeping brim and crown covered in the same wool silk as her coat (which also binds the brim edge in a wide stripe). The hat is trimmed with a delicate posy of blue and white silk flowers, blue seed pearls and slim white feathers, along with several looped blue blue wool silk bows.

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It remains a good hat for the Queen in terms of colour, scale and material (the straw brim adds lovely lightness around her face) and the hat’s quibbles about proportion (the lower side of the brim is a bit long and, from front view, throws the hat slightly off balance) are minor. The colour of this ensemble has a chameleon quality to it- at its last outing, outdoors in bright sunshine, it was a vibrant teal but today’s photos show a gentler, duck egg blue. Bonus points to a hat that changes colour for different appearances.

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Designer: Angela Kelly. Made by Stella McLaren
Previously Worn: June 9, 2018; July 6, 2016; November 28, 2015

What do you think of Her Majesty’s blue hat today?

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Photos from Getty as indicated 

Dutch Visit to Germany: Day 3

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King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima continued their visit to Germany in Potsdam yesterday with a program of engagements which included a visit with Prime Minister Dietmar Woudke and stops at the Großer Refraktor telescope, film and media city at Babelsberg, and Schloss Sanssouci, neo-classical summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (and the German rival of Versaille!). For these events, Queen Máxima repeated her large picture hat in pale, dusky pink straw with dramatic, upswept ‘slice’ brim, simply trimmed with a wide Petersham ribbon hatband in the same colour, tied in a bow at the side.

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This is such a familiar and successful millinery look for Máxima, it’s hard to believe this is just this hat’s fourth public outing. And herein lies my only, small quibble with this hat- if you scroll through the photo galleries, you’ll see a slight crease in the hat’s brim, just above Máxima’s left ear. A bit of steam would likely smooth this out and restore the brim to the perfectly sweeping curve we know and appreciate it to be.

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Designer: Fabienne Delvigne. Dress by Natan.
Previously Worn: March 28, 2019; May 16, 2018; June 20, 2017 

This is a grand hat that the Dutch queen wears spectacularly well- what do you think of its outing in Germany yesterday?

Photos from Getty as indicated 

Queen Celebrates Grocery Milestone

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Queen Elizabeth was in Covent Garden this morning to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the grocery chain Sainsbury’s . For this event, which saw the store create a pop-up replica on the site of one of its original stores, the Queen repeated her muted jade straw hat with straight-sided, domed top crown and short cartwheel brim, trimmed with silk flowers and a multi-looped straw bow.

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The colour is beautiful on this design and the textural contrast between the coat and hat makes the two pieces work well together without being matchy or one-note. I’ve always found the crown of this hat block to be a bit clunky but thankfully, the trim flowers and twists are scaled well to match it. The third picture in the first gallery below gives an interesting back view of the hat – not only is the brim trimmed around the back (a common technique on the Queen’s hats, I suspect, to keep the brim off the collar of her coat), the crown top and sides are individually constructed, then sewn together. I suppose that’s the best way to tackle the flared shape of the crown- maybe one of our millinery-trained readers can give some commentary on this?

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Designer: Rachel Trevor Morgan
Previously Worn: May 15, 2018; June 23, 2017

All in all, it’s a lovely hat to wear to do one’s shopping, isn’t it?!

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Photos from Getty as indicated 

Masako Supports Red Cross For First Solo Engagement As Empress

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Empress Masako, Crown Princess Kiko, Princess Hanako, Princess Nobuko and Princess Hisako enjoyed a joint engagement today at the Japanese Red Cross Society’s annual meeting in Tokyo. For Masako’s first solo official duty as empress, she repeated a cream bowler variation hat with domed, straight-sided crown and upturned kettle brim, trimmed with a wide navy hatband folded into a flat bow at the back. It’s a prim hat that pairs well with her navy and cream suit.



Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: This is tricky by my guess is it’s the same as the one worn May 26, 2018

Crown Princess Kiko repeated a bumper hat covered in the same finely striped ice blue silk as a matching suit. Bias placement on the brim give a diagonal contrast to the stripes, breaking up the one-note ensemble. Views from this hat’s last outing show it also has a small posy of silk flowers tucked behind the brim on one side.

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: April 26, 2016

Princess Hanako repeated her ecru square crowned hat with double sidesweeping brim, simply trimmed with a wide silk hatband in the same colour. The brim shape and tall, angular crown are elements we don’t often see on Imperial royal hats and Hanako caries it very well.

Designer: 
Previously Worn: May 13, 2015; July 10, 2014 

Princess Nobuko paired a white hat with flat crown and rolled brim with her blue silk, the two pieces drawn together with a blue silk hatband and side bow.

Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: I believe this hat is new

Princess Hisako repeated a pale grey hat with flat crown and gently curved saddle brim. The hat appears to have undergone tweaking since its first appearance last fall- gone is the flat hatband in the same fabric as the matching jacquard suit and in its place are stacked applique cutouts from the floral fabric (maybe with some lace as well?). The resulting 3D hatband gives fantastic interest and dimension to the small scaled hat and leaves me wondering why such embellishment isn’t seen on hats, more.

Designer: 
Previously Worn: October 1, 2018

I can’t imagine that the all cream and blue/grey palate worn by the Empress and Imperial princesses is a coincidence and one wonders the behind-the-scenes logistics that accompanies such planning (I suppose the Empress can’t wake up and say, “No, I think I’ll wear the pink instead….”!). Thoughts about this quintet of Imperial royal hats?

Photos from The Asahi Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun and The Asahi Shimbun via Getty; social media as indicated 

Dutch Visit To Germany: Day 2

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King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima continued their visit to Germany yesday with stops at Foreign Operations Command near Berlin, a shipyard in Rostock, and a cultural market center in Bollewick. For these events, the Dutch queen repeated her textured natural straw pyramid shaped hat which is simply trimmed with a slim silk bow on the side of the hat in the same golden wheat shade as the straw.

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In searching for something good to say, I might remark that  it’s great to see Máxima depart from her usual go-to calots and sidesweeping ‘slice’ brimmed hats or that the warm brown colour contrasts well with her dark jacket. However- there’s no escaping the visible reality that there are issues (again) with the construction of this hat. While I strive to be fair in critiques here, we can all see how the inside of this hat is messily finished. From a milliner who loudly touts herself as doing couture work, I find this absolutely unacceptable.

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Designer: Fabienne Delvigne
Previously Worn: Mar 27, 2017; March 9, 2011

Our weekly “Extras” posts show countless pieces of millinery that are beautifully designed and impeccably finished from milliners who never see any of their work worn on a royal head. When I think about those hats and place them beside this one… well, I have no words. The Dutch queen, quite simply, should be wearing millinery of a higher standard.

Photos from Getty as indicated