The Imperial royals have been busy over the past week, leaving us several hats to catch up. On April 20, Princess Akiko repeated her white cloche with upturned brim on a visit to the Mie Prefecture Museum. This design is a larger scale than many of Akiko’s other hats and works well on her.
Last Tuesday, April 26, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko commemorated the 100th anniversary of RIKEN, Japan’s largest research institute. The Empress repeated a pale blue saucer hat with raised rim around the back and a large, stacked, circular origami bow.
On Wednesday, April 27, Prince Masahito and Princess Hanako of Hitachi attended the 35th Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize award ceremony in Tokyo. Princess Hanako repeated her sage green silk covered hat with cloche shaped crown and mushroom brim with lace overlay.
And finally, On Thursday, April 28, the Emperor and Empress presented the 11th Midori Academic Prize in Tokyo. Empress Michiko repeated her white saucer hat we first saw her wear during the Imperial couple’s tour of Vietnam in March this year. Like much of the Empress’ millinery, this hat is all about subtlety- a gently raised rim, transparent lattice underbrim, flat bow in ombre grey silk and monochrome silk anemone blossoms and leaves. On its own, the piece falls a little flat tonally but combined with Michiko’s ombre silk suit, it really works.
Thoughts about this quartet of Imperial royal hats?
to this day, forty- one years ago today, and a visit to Helsinki that saw Queen Elizabeth in a blue gingham suit and matching cloche hat. The gingham squares make a wonderful pattern stretched over the crown of the hat.
At the April 5 Service of Hope at Westminster Abbey (held in memory of those who lost their lives in the Westminster terror attack March 22, 2017), the Duchess of Cambridge wore a black straw percher hat that many of you admired. The hat, from Lock & Co., is a bespoke version of the “Salsa” design from the Summer 2013 collection. Since 2013, Kate has paired this hat with three coats and I’m curious- which pairing do you like best?
Royal Hats 