After Monday’s post on how royal pillbox hats have been worn over the past 17 years, I thought it would be interesting to look back further at this famous hat shape to see how it was treated in the past. Here is a look at five decades of royal pillbox wearing in the last century.
1950s: The decade before pillboxes surged in popularity, the few that reached royal heads were low versions, mostly worn high on the head. You can see references (the cutouts on Princess Marina’s hat in the middle, for example) to the calots and other close fitting cocktail hats which were popular at the time.
1970s: Pillboxes are further inflated, textured and lavishly embellished with ruched scarves, net tulle, woven ribbons, feathers, and a myriad of gigantic bows, trailing ribbons and floral explosions out the back. Placement is ever so slightly forward from the previous decade- either at the hairline or just behind.
1990s: There’s a little bit of everything- bold colour, pattern, texture, veils, bows, feathers. The forward placement and diagonal tilt of the 1980s continues through the early nineties but as the decade progresses, there is a return to the classic placement of the 1960s- straight on the head and off the face with the front rim of the hat a few inches behind the hairline. There is also a return to classic styling- the large bows, blooms and baubles of the previous two decades disappear and hats become more streamlined as the century draws to a close.
to this day in 1935 and the Silver Jubilee celebrations of King George V. His sister, Queen Maud of Norway, is pictured here in a toque hat, riding with her nephew, the future King Edward XIII.
Royal Hats 